Plane Search: Objects May Be Flight 370 Debris

A major search has taken place for two objects in the southern Indian Ocean that may be related to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The operation, involving four surveillance planes, was hampered by bad weather and lasted until last light. It is set to resume on Friday.

The objects were spotted by a satellite last Sunday and could potentially be debris from the Boeing 777.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said they were a "reasonable size", with one around 24 metres in length and the other around five metres.

:: Live Updates: Search For Possible Debris

Rain and cloud limited the visibility for the planes, which was unable to locate the objects.

Two Australian Orion surveillance planes have been looking for the objects

The country's prime minister Tony Abbott described the satellite sighting, around 1,550 miles (2,500km) southwest of Perth, or four hours by plane - as "credible" and a "potentially important development".

Malaysia's transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, called it a "credible lead".

The objects were spotted in the far south of the southern air corridor that investigators have been scouring over the last few days, along with a corridor further north.

Satellite images of the two objects

Satellite images, which show the two objects floating on or just under the surface, were taken on March 16 but it has taken time to analyse the pictures, and the objects would have moved since then.

However, more satellites are being redirected in the hope of getting higher resolution pictures.

Two Royal Australian Air Force Orion aircraft, a New Zealand Orion and a US Navy Poseidon aircraft are involved in the search.

Australian pilots are briefed on the search

"The task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and it may turn out they are not related to search for MH370," Mr Abbott warned.

"Pings", or satellite signals, from a number of large objects are believed to have been picked up by a US spotter plane.

A Norwegian merchant ship has arrived in the vicinity, and the Australian naval vessel HMAS Success, which is capable of retrieving debris, is some days away.

Mr Abbott tells MPs about the sighting of two potential objects from MH370

A British naval survey ship, HMS Echo, is also heading to the region.

The wider searches, including a northern corridor from northern Thailand to Kazakhstan, will go on until investigators are certain they have located the plane. Some 18 ships and 29 aircraft are taking part.

John Young, from the AMSA, cautioned the objects could be seaborne debris along a shipping route where containers can fall off cargo vessels, but the larger object is longer than a container.

The depth of the ocean in the latest search area is around 5,000 metres - twice as deep as the area of Atlantic Ocean where the Air France plane was found after crashing in 2009.

A US Navy Poseidon is also involved in the search

The search for the missing Malaysian plane, which had 239 people on board, has been focused on the two corridors, one of which extends towards the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.

Military planes from Australia, the US and New Zealand have been scouring the vast area, which was halved in size to 118,000 sq miles (305,000 sq km) on Wednesday.

There has been no trace of the aircraft since it vanished from radar a short distance into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing 12 days ago.

In Beijing, relatives of many of the 154 Chinese passengers waited anxiously for news from an AMSA news conference.

Sky's Jonathan Samuels, who is with the families, said: "They look exhausted. Most have slowly returned to their rooms to await developments from Australia."

Investigators believe two vital pieces of communication equipment were intentionally switched off and the aircraft deliberately diverted, potentially taking it thousands of miles off course.

Satellite data suggests the plane flew for at least seven hours after it was turned back across Malaysia towards the Strait of Malacca.

HMAS Success is heading to the area but is some days away

Investigators are considering a number of theories about what happened to the aircraft, including hijacking, sabotage and terrorism.

However, background checks on all foreign passengers apart from three from Ukraine and Russia have yielded "no information of significance", Mr Hishammuddin said.

One theory that has gathered pace among aviation experts in recent days is that a fire in the cabin of flight MH370 may explain the mystery.

Pilot Fikri Zambi said the crew may have disabled tracking devices in response to a blaze and turned back towards the nearest airport, before being incapacitated by smoke.

The aircraft would then continue flying in auto-pilot mode, until it succumbed to the flames or ran out of fuel.

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