Australian airforce Group Captain Craig Heap travelling with Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said on Saturday that two Chinese aircraft would start the search operation on Sunday and the Chinese assets have very good visual search capability.
Chinese Air Force IL-76 transport plane takes off from the Royal Malaysia Airforce Base in Subang, Malaysia, March 22, 2014. Three Chinese Air Force planes arrived Malaysia on Friday to help with the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Two IL-76 transport planes among them were sent to Australia for search on Saturday. [Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua] |
The two are large transportation planes and they have many windows, he told reporters at the Pearce Airforce Base, 50 km north of Perth, adding that as this is primarily a visual search, if you want to spot things in the water, you need to be low and close to the water.
"They will do a great job and I'm sure they will assist us to clear the area," he added.