– Fundamental questions –
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein stressed the urgent need to verify and “corroborate” what the images showed.
Experts said the fact that Abbott himself had released the information added weight to its credibility.
But David Kaminski-Morrow, air transport editor with aviation magazine Flight International, said the history of false starts meant the information will be “treated with extreme caution”.
“It’s the best lead simply because, with so little information, it’s effectively the only lead,” he said.
Malaysian authorities have been criticised for their handling of the investigation, especially by relatives of those on board who have complained of confusing or non-existent information.
Nearly two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals.
China is paying “great attention” to the news from Australia, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement. READ: Chinese media slam Malaysia handling of missing flight.
“The Chinese side is ready to make relevant arrangements based on the latest updates,” he added, without elaborating.
There was a mixed reaction to the news among families gathered at a Beijing hotel, who for two weeks have been clinging to the slim hope that the plane might have secretly landed somewhere.
Some simply refused to countenance a crash scenario.
“My son is still alive. My son is still alive. I don’t believe the news,” cried Wen Wancheng, 63, as he pushed his way through a throng of reporters outside the hotel room used to update relatives.
Others cited the previous sightings that went nowhere.
“I am sick of hearing there is new information only for it to be dismissed later,” one man told AFP angrily.
In Malaysia there had been chaotic, emotional scenes Wednesday when a group of tearful Chinese relatives tried to gatecrash the government’s tightly controlled daily media briefing at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur airport.
If the plane is found, fundamental questions will remain as to what caused it to crash.
Malaysia has asked the FBI to help recover data deleted from a flight simulator belonging to the missing plane’s chief pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and removed from his home Saturday.
Zaharie, a 33-year veteran of the airline, was highly regarded by his peers. But suspicion has clouded the pilots since investigators concluded the plane’s communication systems were disabled manually before it changed course.
In his first on-camera comments on the mystery, US President Barack Obama, who is due to visit Malaysia next month, said he wanted anguished relatives to know Washington considers solving the riddle a “top priority”.
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