Xuelong to arrive at search area Tuesday

Chinese Antarctic exploration team members aboard Chinese icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon), search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean, March 23, 2014. The icebreaker, travelling at full speed, was about 770 sea miles from the search area of the missing jet up to 10 am Sunday. [Photo/Xinhua]

 

ABOARD XUELONG -- Chinese icebreaker Xuelong is expected to arrive Tuesday at the area in the southern Indian Ocean where possible debris of the missing Malaysian jetliner MH370 had been spotted in satellite images.

The long-serving Antarctic research vessel is still some 650 miles (1046 km) away from the search area, and it will take the icebreaker another 40 hours to get there.

Xu Ting, deputy director of Xuelong's search operations, said all the crew members have been doing their best to look for any possible traces of the missing plane.

"Though we are still hundreds of miles away from the targeted waters, we are combat-ready for an all-out search mission," he added.

The helicopter-carrying Xuelong, or "Snow Dragon," left the Australian port of Fremantle for the southern Indian Ocean on Friday after it received an order to join the hunt.

Australia said Thursday they had spotted two objects in the southern Indian Ocean possibly related to the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Following that, Chinese and French satellites also spotted suspicious objects with a possible linkage to the missing jet in nearby waters, yet the on-going search operations have so far failed to locate any.

The MH370, which carried 239 people en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, mysteriously disappeared from radar on early March 8. Among the passengers, 154 are Chinese.

Chinese planes arrive in Perth to step up search efforts	Icebreaker heads for southern Indian Ocean for missing jet	Live report: Malaysia gets new satellite images of potential debris

	Video: Friend defends MH370 pilot Nik Huzlan, a previous classmate of Captain Zaharie, speaks high of the pilot.
	Video: Officials remain puzzled Tension mounted as the search for the missing Malaysian airplane continued.