Australian search planes have been diverted to find two objects in the southern Indian Ocean "possibly related" to the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) says it has received an expert assessment of commercial satellite imagery of objects it suspects may be debris from the flight.
AMSA spokesman John Young says the images indicate that one of the objects measures around 24 metres in length.
Mr Young emphasised the objects may be difficult to locate and they may not be related to the search.
"The objects are relatively indistinct on the imagery. I don't profess to be an expert in assessing the imagery, but those who are expert indicate they are credible sightings," he said.
"The indications to me is of objects that are a reasonable size and probably awash with water bobbing up and down under the surface."
Four aircraft have been reoriented to an area 2,500 kilometres south-west of Perth as a result of the information.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Parliament this afternoon that he had spoken with his Malaysian counterpart but warned the objects might not be related to the search.
However, Mr Young says the satellite images are the most promising lead authorities have.
"This is a lead - it's probably the best lead we have right now, but we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them to know whether it's really meaningful or not," he said.
"And I caution again they will be difficult to find. They may not be associated with the aircraft and we have plenty of experience of that in other searches."
Mr Young also cautioned that poor visibility may hinder efforts to locate the objects from circling aircraft.
"Weather conditions are moderate in the southern Indian Ocean where the search is taking place; however, poor visibility has been reported and this will hamper both air and satellite efforts," he said.
Australian assets en route to site
A merchant ship that responded to a broadcast from the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) on Monday will arrive in the area about 6pm AEDT.
The HMAS Success is also en route to the area, but AMSA says the Durance class ship will not reach the search zone for "some days".
Mr Young says the Success is "well equipped to recover any objects located and proven to be from MH370".
One of the RAAF aircraft, a C-130 Hercules, will drop marker buoys in the area to assist the RCC in providing information about water movement for drift modelling.
"They will provide an ongoing reference point if the task of relocating the objects becomes protracted," Mr Young said.
Flight MH370 has been missing since it disappeared en route to Beijing from Malaysia on March 8.
So far the investigation has focused on the possibility that the plane was deliberately diverted from its flight path.
The plane is thought to have travelled in either of two directions: north west into Asia or south west into the Indian Ocean.
Australia has been leading the search in the southern vector, specifically an area 3,000 kilometres south-west of Perth.
AMSA says the search zone covers 600,000 square kilometres of ocean and has been plotted using data based on the last satellite relay signals sent by the plane.
The search now encompasses an area stretching 7.7 million square kilometres - an area larger than the entire land mass of Australia.
MH370 thought likely to have flown into Indian Ocean
Last night a source close to the investigation told Reuters that authorities probing the jet's disappearance believed it most likely flew into the southern Indian Ocean.
That view was based on the lack of any evidence from countries along the northern corridor that the plane entered their airspace, and the failure to find any trace of wreckage in searches in the upper part of the southern corridor.
"The working assumption is that it went south, and furthermore that it went to the southern end of that corridor," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
China, which is leading the northern corridor search with Kazakhstan, said it had not yet found any sign of the aircraft crossing into its territory.
Malaysian and US officials believe the aircraft was deliberately diverted perhaps thousands of miles off course, but an exhaustive background search of the passengers and crew aboard has not yielded anything that might explain why.
Last week, a source familiar with official US assessments said it was thought most likely the plane flew south, where it presumably would have run out of fuel and crashed into the sea.
Overcome relatives grow angry with bungled investigation
Malaysian authorities have launched an investigation after anguished Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing flight stormed into a media centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, calling on authorities to "give us back our families".
Two-thirds of the 239 people on the missing flight are Chinese, and the drip feed of often conflicting information has sparked fury among desperate relatives and drawn condemnation from Chinese authorities.
Amid chaotic scenes, the relatives were besieged by camera-wielding reporters awaiting the start of a daily press briefing by Malaysian officials on the search for the missing aircraft.
Shouting and crying, the relatives unfurled a banner that accused the Malaysian authorities of withholding information and not doing enough to find the plane.
"They give different messages every day. Where's the flight now? We can't stand it anymore," one woman wailed.
*Article first appeared on http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-20/raaf-en-route-to-possible-debris-f...
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