20 Mar 2014

Objects could be from plane - Abbott

5:01 pm on 20 March 2014

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced objects possibly related to the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane have been found in the southern Indian Ocean.

Mr Abbott told Parliament on Thursday that satellite images show two possible objects in the ocean and an Australian Orion is en route to the area.

Search teams from 26 countries including Australia and New Zealand are trying to find flight MH370, which went missing with 239 people on board after it left Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing on 8 March.

Australian Air Force crew are leading the southern search.

Australian Air Force crew are leading the southern search. Photo: AFP / Royal Australia Air Force

Malaysia says the plane was intentionally diverted and could have flown on either a northern or southern arc from its last known position in the Malacca Straits. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the aircraft's crew - or other individuals on the plane - were involved in its disappearance.

Mr Abbott said that "new and credible information has come to light" relating to the search, the ABC reports.

"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 he had spoken with Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak and cautioned that the objects had yet to be identified.

The Orion has been diverted to find the objects and was expected to reach the area early on Thursday afternoon. Three more aircraft would follow.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion search aircraft is now based at the Pearce Airforce base in Perth as it helps in the search mission. It joins five other aircraft from Australia and the United States in searching 6000,000 square kilometres of ocean, an area larger than the land mass of Australia.

Squadron leader Marcus Hogan, one of the pilots crewing the Orion, told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme on Thursday that, despite all the sophisticated sensors, at the end of the day people were still looking out the window using binoculars.

Relatives dragged from briefing

Relatives were removed from the media centre.

Relatives were removed from the media centre. Photo: AFP

Frustration with the search for the plane boiled over into chaotic scenes on Wednesday as Chinese relatives were dragged away from journalists outside the daily news conference about the search in Kuala Lumpur. More than half the people on the missing plane are Chinese.

The family members were carrying banners criticising the handling of the case and were attempting to speak to Chinese journalists, the BBC reports.

One of the relatives, a middle-aged woman, cried: "They give different messages every day! Where's the flight now? Find our relatives! Find the aircraft!"

The Malaysian government said later it regretted the scenes and ordered an investigation, saying "one can only imagine the anguish they are going through".