Australian PM says satellite finds objects possibly from missing Malaysian jet

SYDNEY/KUALA LUMPUR: Two images spotted by satellites that may be potential debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner were "indistinct", with the largest measuring 24 metres, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on Thursday.

"They are objects of a reasonable size and probably awash with water moving up and down over the surface," John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of AMSA, told reporters.

Australia has sent four search aircraft and two ships to an area south of the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean it identified earlier this week to search for the objects pinpointed by satellites.

Water in the search area was "several thousand metres deep" and poor visibility in the area would hamper the search, although the weather was moderate, Young said.

"I can confirm we have a new lead," Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, where the investigation into the missing airliner is based.

"I am meeting the Australian delegation now," he added. we are waiting for some information."

Another official in Malaysia said investigators were "hopeful but cautious" about the Australian discovery. The satellite images were being reviewed and they were awaiting visual confirmation, the source said.

No confirmed wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.

"New and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean," Abbott told the Australian parliament.

"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search."

"Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified," he said.

Abbott said he had already spoken with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak and cautioned that the objects had yet to be identified.

#INFOGRAPHIC Map showing the Australian search zone for #MH370 as of March 19 @AFP http://t.co/hAJeFn6v3h

— John Saeki (@JohnSaeki) March 20, 2014

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

FBI helping probe

Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course.

Exhaustive background checks of the passengers and crew aboard have not yielded anything that might explain why.

Investigators piecing together patchy data from military radar and satellites believe that, minutes after its identifying transponder was switched off, the plane turned sharply west, re-crossing the Malay Peninsula and following an established commercial route towards India.

After that, ephemeral pings picked up by one commercial satellite suggest the aircraft flew on for at least six hours.

The methodical shutdown of the communications systems, together with the fact that the plane appeared to be following a planned course after turning back, has focused particular attention on the pilot and co-pilot.

The FBI is helping Malaysian authorities analyse data from a flight simulator belonging to the captain of the missing plane, after initial examination showed some data logs had been deleted early last month.

A Malaysian official with knowledge of the investigations into the pilots said three simulator games that 53-year-old pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had played were being looked at.

"We are following up on the data logs being erased," the source said. "These could be logs of the games that were erased to free up memory, so it may not lead us to anything. He played a lot of games, going into hundreds and thousands of hours."

Indian Ocean

Abbott said a search aircraft was due to arrive at the area where the objects were spotted at about the time he was speaking in parliament.

A further three aircraft were also en route to the site.

An unprecedented multinational search for the plane has focused on two vast search corridors: one arcing north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia.

Australia is leading the search in the southern part of the southern corridor, with assistance from the US Navy.

The exact location of the possible debris was not clear, and Abbott did not say if it was in the search area set out by AMSA.

The area that Australia was searching on Wednesday was mostly around 2,000-3,000 metres deep, although that part of the ocean does go as deep at 4,000-5,000 metres.

That would make recovering the "black box" voice and data recorders that may finally unlock the mystery of what happened aboard Flight MH370 extremely challenging.

#UPDATE Possible Malaysia Airline Flight #MH370 objects are "relatively indistinct" and "bobbing up and down over [water] surface": AMSA

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) March 20, 2014

#AMSA: objects indistinct, a reasonable size, one around 24 metres, another smaller than that #MH370 #ABCNews24

— Kumi Taguchi (@kumitaguchi) March 20, 2014

#AMSA: debris can be containers from ships; this occassion, the size & number of objects in same area, makes it worth looking at #MH370

— Kumi Taguchi (@kumitaguchi) March 20, 2014

Here's the latest map outlining where Australian authorities have been searching. Possible #MH370 debris found nearby pic.twitter.com/NKAhLLJsaE

— Adam Todd (@_AdamTodd) March 20, 2014