Flying With Searchers Looking for Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet

OVER THE MALACCA STRAIT March 13, 2014— -- The Malaysian crew spotted something in the water of the Malacca Strait today, an object floating far from land. The crew, searching the water for signs of the missing Malaysian jetliner, banked hard to the right and swooped so low that it appeared the wing would hit the water.

The crew peered out the windows hoping finally to find a trace of the flight MH370, but the plane soon gained altitude and resumed its hunt after determining that the object was a box left behind by a fisherman – just another dead end.

Major Ahmad Zahari piloted the plane through an area that covered 70 square nautical miles today because Malaysian military radar had recorded something in the area on the night the plane vanished. The patch of ocean assigned to Zahari was just a fraction of the vast seas being scoured by ships and planes looking for Malaysia Airlines jetliner.

It is painstaking work, staring at the steel gray sea for hours and seeing little but waves.

"We are looking for any signs, oil spillage, any debris, any possible baggage, anything that floats," Zahari said.

But as the search nears a full week he said, "The {search] area is getting bigger and bigger." And what his crew has found so far, he said, is "nothing."

The major said criticism of the search has been unfair.

"It really hurts. We are doing our best to conduct this search day and night. And so, actually some people that criticize, they don’t really know what is happening and what the government is doing," Zahari said.

The major is not giving up hope.

"I hope that we find survivors, I really hope that we find survivors," he said. "I believe that human beings can survive up to 14 days without food, so I believe that there is still the possibility of survival."