Another Jet Lead: 300 More Objects Detected

Another big lead, but yet more frustration in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Officials say a Thai satellite has detected "300 objects of various sizes" floating near the search area in the Indian Ocean, reports the AP. Another set of satellite images released yesterday showed 122 "potential objects"—but severe weather prevented planes from searching the area today, Reuters reports.

• Some 11 military and civilian aircraft had been on the way to the area, but the forecast "was calling for severe icing, severe turbulence, and near-zero visibility," a US Navy spokesman says. "Anybody who's out there is coming home and all additional sorties from here are canceled."

• The latest images, together with the possible debris field spotted by a French satellite, add to what the BBC calls "a growing body of circumstantial evidence" suggesting the flight came down in a remote part of the Indian Ocean—though the Boeing 777's black boxes could now be hundreds of miles away from any floating debris.
• The son of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, meanwhile, has rejected claims his father may have been on a "suicide mission," reports the Sydney Morning Herald. "I've read everything online," says the 26-year-old, the first family member to speak out publicly. "But I've ignored all the speculation. I know my father better."
• A US Navy black box detector is on the way to the area, but experts fear the pinging will soon be too weak to detect, meaning it could be years before the mystery of the plane's disappearance can be solved. "Given the remoteness of the site and the depth of the water and the weather down there, the black box will be almost impossible to find," an aviation expert tells the Telegraph. "It will then be a case of digging through the wreckage field, possibly for a couple of years."

(More Malaysia Airlines stories.)