ANYTHING? – AT 11:38 A.M. ET:  We continue to get "reports" on the search for the Malaysian airliner.  CNN and Fox won't give up their intensive coverage, even though there's nothing much to report.   From CNN: 

(CNN) -- A growing number of airplanes scoured the southern Indian Ocean on Sunday as the 16-day search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 continued, but the end result was frustratingly the same -- nothing.

Buoyed by a third set of satellite data that indicated possible debris from the plane in the water, the international team led by Australia fought bad weather early in the day as it looked for signs of the missing Boeing 777 and the 239 people who were aboard.

Eight aircraft and one ship conducted Sunday's search and there were no sightings of significance, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a written statement.

Four more jets -- two from China and two from Japan -- are set to join the reconnaissance team on Monday, the organization said.

Earlier, French authorities passed on satellite data showing "potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor" of the search area for the plane, Malaysia's acting transportation minister said.

"Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue coordination center," Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Satellite images previously issued by Australian and Chinese authorities have also pointed to possible large floating objects, stoking hopes searchers may find debris from the missing plane.

COMMENT:  It was pointed out last night that the section of the Indian Ocean being searched is, even in normal times, a vast junkyard.  There's always debris there.  Unless the searchers can put eyeballs on some of the objects "sighted" by satellite we'll never know if these were chunks of the missing airliner, or stuff that has fallen off ships or dumped as refuse.

It won't be many days before the battery power runs out on the pingers that sound when a plane goes down.  The search authorities hope they can home in on these pingers before the power goes out.  So far, no luck.

March 23, 2014