Pilot Focus

Exhaustive background checks of the passengers and crew aboard have yielded barely anything that might hint at a motive for the flight's diversion out over the Indian Ocean.

But the staggered shutdown of the communications systems, and the plane's initial diversion west along navigational waypoints, have focused attention on the pilot and co-pilot.

The FBI is helping Malaysian authorities analyse data from a flight simulator at the pilot's home. Initial analysis showed that some simulator data logs had been deleted last month.

China's icebreaker for Antarctic research, Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, will set off from Perth to search the area, Chinese state news agency Xinhua cited maritime authorities as saying.

About two-thirds of the missing plane's passengers were Chinese nationals.

The satellite images, provided by US company DigitalGlobe , were taken on March 16, meaning that the possible debris could by now have drifted far from the original site.

The relatively large size of the objects would suggest that if they do come from the missing aircraft, it was largely intact when it went into the water.

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Australia investigates possible debris from MH370

	Video: Friend defends MH370 pilot Nik Huzlan, a previous classmate of Captain Zaharie, speaks high of the pilot.
	Video: Officials remain puzzled Tension mounted as the search for the missing Malaysian airplane continued.