Two potential bits of missing flight MH370 wreckage found: Australian PM announces discovery of 78ft 'debris' after new satellite data calculations narrowed hunt to remote stretch of Indian Ocean
- 'There is something down there' - U.S surveillance plane crew member
- Floating object was among two pieces spotted on satellite imagery
- It could take two days or longer to confirm what the debris is
- Initial sweeps of the area have not found the objects
- Pictures from surveillance aircraft show poor visibility
- Satellite images dated 'March 16' raise concerns debris has moved
- Unprecedented search in waters up to 5000m (16,400ft) deep
- The waters are twice as deep as those in which French plane went down
- Australian PM says images are 'credible and potentially important'
- Search planes and ships are on way to objects 2,500km southwest of Perth
- UK to send a ship to the southern corridor to aid with the search effort
- The search zone is about 350,000 square kilometres (185,000 square miles)
Two objects that may be wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been spotted floating in the southern Indian Ocean.
The Australian government released pictures taken by satellite on March 16 of possible plane debris seen around 2,500km (1,500miles) southwest of Perth - one of the most remote areas of the planet that's a four-hour flight from the Australian coast.
One of the objects is estimated to be 78ft (24m) in size, the other 15ft (five metres), and the sighting of the objects was said by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to be 'credible and potentially important'.
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Two pieces of wreckage that are possibly from the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 - one estimated to be 78ft in size - have been found to the west of Australia, it was announced today. Pictured: Satellite pictures released by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority of the object thought to be related to the search for MH370
The debris was spotted on satellite imagery and a total of four aircraft have been sent to investigate the sighting, some 1553 miles off the coast of Perth
Difficulties: This picture, taken on Thursday morning on board a Royal Australian Air Force Orion plane, shows how very poor visibility is hampering the search
Map: An armada of ships and several surveillance aircraft have been dispatched to the area the satellite saw the objects in, which lies 1,500 miles to the southwest of Perth, Australia, pictured top right
Narrowed the search: Investigators have halved the scope of the search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 to an area roughly the size of Arizona, off the coast of Australia
The possibility that the objects could be from MH370 increased when a crew member on board a U.S Navy P-8 Poseidon search plane declared 'there is something down there'.
The crew were on one of several aircraft dispatched to look for the debris.
The US TV company, ABC News, which has a representative on board the aircraft, said the crew had told him about the radar indication.
But ABC said it was still too early to tell if the radar hits were related to the missing plane.
Earlier a Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane completed a sweep of the search area and failed to find the objects. It was reportedly hampered by poor visibility.
Andrew Nelson, a reporter for A Current Affair on Nine Network Australia, who travelled on board, said: 'From what we saw at the time there was no debris visible to us in that area.'
The RAAF crew today was 'very confident they will get a result' despite today's 'very treacherous conditions', Nine reported.
The flight disappeared on March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
It is now 13 days after it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast at 1:21am local time.
Police are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board, and have asked for background checks from abroad on all foreign passengers.
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Thursday that 'we have a new and credible lead' that 'gives us hope'.
The credibility of the sighting is based partly on the fact that a satellite signal suggested the plane was somewhere in two broad arcs - either to the northwest towards Kazakhstan or to the southwest in the Indian Ocean.
The two objects are at the far end of the southerly corridor.
UK contribution: Survey ship HMS Echo is being sent to help with the search for MH370
Naval assets: HMAS Success is part of the search operation
U.S, Australian, New Zealand, Malaysian and UK search aircraft and naval vessels have been dispatched to the area.
The Royal Navy's HMS Echo is part of the search armada, which totals 25 aircraft and 18 ships.
According to the Royal Navy website HMS Echo is mid-way through an 18-month deployment to improve charts used by seafarers across the world.
The British ship has been in the Gulf conducting hydrographic surveying - but will now join the search for flight MH370.
A Norwegian ship - car carrier Hoegh St. Petersburg - is also part of the operation, and arrived in the search area on Thursday morning.
The car carrier was on its way from Madagascar to Melbourne when it got a request from Australian authorities to assist in investigating the objects.
One expert said it could take two days to find the objects and confirm what they are.
Michael Daniel, a retired United States Federal Aviation Administration official told The Straits Times: 'If they have a strong feeling or indication that the debris belongs to the aircraft, one of the first things authorities will do is drop sonar buoys in the water.
'If the black box is there, the buoys should be able to pick up the signals. This could take up to 48 hours but it all depends on how near or far the ships and other assets are.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2584816/Search-area-missing-jet-dramatically-narrowed-US-officials-hone-satellite-signals-engine.html#ixzz2wVaNqSyz
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