A Chinese search plane has spotted has spotted a white, square-shaped object floating in the Indian Ocean in the same area where satellite imagery identified possible debris from missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-76, according to the official state news agency in Beijing.

Xinhua reports the crew aboard the IL-76 plane spotted the object during today’s search, as well as several smaller objects around it.  The IL-76 was returning to base in Perth and asked the RAAF to send a plane to the scene – located as 95.1113 degrees East longitude and 42.5453 South latitude, pretty far out there in the Roaring Forties.  The Chinese icebreaker “Snow Dragon” is heading there, too.

Meanwhile, the US is sending a black box locator in case a debris field is located.  The Towed Pinger Locator 25 is pulled behind a vessel at slow speeds, and has a highly sensitive listening capability so that if the wreck site is located, it can “hear” the Flight Data Recorder pingers down to a depth of about 6,100 meters.