Authorities seek mystery woman who last spoke to Malaysia Airlines captain as Chinese satellite spots object in ocean

Investigators are looking for a woman who made a two-minute call to Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah from a mobile phone obtained under a false identity. Meanwhile, China released an image of an object 72 feet by 43 feet that was taken around noon Tuesday, about 75 miles south of where an Australian satellite captured two objects two days earlier. 

 A satellite image released by China on Saturday offered the latest sign that wreckage from a Malaysia Airlines plane lost for more than two weeks could be in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, reports emerged that authorities were looking for a mystery woman who was the last person to contact Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah before the doomed flight took off.

The image, showing an object 72 feet by 43 feet, was taken around noon Tuesday. The image location was about 75 miles south of where an Australian satellite viewed two objects two days earlier. Planes and ships have been searching that area since the first discovery was announced.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is overseeing the search in the region, said a civil aircraft reported seeing a number of small objects in the search area, including a wooden pallet.

AFP PHOTO / CCTV China’s SASTIND has detected suspected a floating object 74 feet by 43 feet in the southern Indian Ocean that could be related to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. 

A New Zealand military plane diverted to the location found only clumps of seaweed.

The agency said in a statement that searchers would keep trying to determine whether the objects are related to the lost plane. Malaysia asked the U.S. for undersea surveillance equipment to help in the search, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.

The latest satellite image is another clue in the baffling search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which dropped off air traffic control screens March 8 over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board.

Investigators are seeking a mystery woman who made a two-minute call to the captain from a mobile phone obtained under a false identity, The Daily Mail reported. The phone’s SIM card was traced back shop in Kuala Lumpur, where it was bought by someone with a woman’s name, who used a false identity, according to The Mail. The find reportedly raised fears that Zaharie had ties to terror groups, who are known to use similar phones.