Debris or Containers?

Everyone is deeply concerned about the story of the missing Malaysian airplane and the people on board. For sometime now, searches have been conducted in the Indian Ocean to find the missing airplane or debris. Many experts suspect that the airplane went down in the vicinity of the Indian Ocean. The emergency response division of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, also known as the AMSA, has led the search in the Indian Ocean. The AMSA issued airplanes and ocean vessels to conduct their searches.

Recently in the searches for the missing Malaysian airplane, an interesting development emerged regarding objects found in satellite photographs. The objects were floating in the Indian Ocean. It was not easy for them to locate the objects in the photo. Some people suspected the objects to be the debris from the plane. However, a theory once suggested that the objects were missing shipping containers that may have fallen off an ocean freight ship.

While this debris vs. container debate emerged, it became clear that the objects were probably not shipping containers. Authorities stated that the floating objects were twice the size of a standard ocean container. In addition to the size, it turns out that the area where the objects are located is usually not used for merchant ships. Although containers can fall off a vessel at anytime, most Freight Forwarders report if containers were missing, and there are no reports that match the area of the object. That is why most authorities believe that these floating objects are debris, possibly from the missing Malaysian airplane, and not a container from a ship.