Scientists potentially narrow MH370 search area to 3 spots

CANBERRA, Australia – Scientists have potentially narrowed the search area for the missing Malaysian airliner to three specific locations in the southern Indian Ocean.

But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau cautioned on Wednesday that the new drift analysis by Australian science agency CSIRO is based on French satellite images of "probably man-made" floating objects, without evidence that they are from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

The bureau has released new analysis of the 2014 disaster that could provide potential starting points to search within a 25,000-square-kilometer (9,700-square-mile) expanse identified by a panel of experts in November as the most likely resting place of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people on board.

That expanse adjoins the original search zone far southwest of Australia that was identified through satellite analysis of the flight's final hours.