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Australia sees possible plane debris | Australia sees possible plane debris |
(35 minutes later) | |
Two objects have been seen that could possibly relate to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, Australian PM Tony Abbott has announced. | Two objects have been seen that could possibly relate to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, Australian PM Tony Abbott has announced. |
Australian vessels have been searching in the southern Indian Ocean for the aircraft, which disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board. | Australian vessels have been searching in the southern Indian Ocean for the aircraft, which disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board. |
Mr Abbott said the objects had been identified on satellite imagery. | Mr Abbott said the objects had been identified on satellite imagery. |
An Orion aircraft had been sent to the area to try to locate the objects, Mr Abbott told parliament. | An Orion aircraft had been sent to the area to try to locate the objects, Mr Abbott told parliament. |
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it lost contact with air traffic controllers. | Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it lost contact with air traffic controllers. |
Twenty-six nations have been involved in a major search for the missing plane, which Malaysia says was intentionally diverted. | |
Investigators have been scrutinising the backgrounds of both the crew and the passengers, but have so far identified no evidence of terror or other potentially relevant links. | |
Southern corridor | |
"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has received information based on satellite information of objects possibly related to the search," Mr Abbott said. | "The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has received information based on satellite information of objects possibly related to the search," Mr Abbott said. |
"Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified." | "Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified." |
Three more aircraft would follow the Orion to the search area, he added. | |
Mr Abbott warned, however, that finding the objects would be very difficult and said they could turn out to be unrelated to the Malaysian aircraft. | |
A number of sightings of possible debris have been investigated in the search for the plane but so far none have proved to be linked. | |
Earlier this week, Australia was asked by Malaysia to take responsibility for the "southern corridor" search. | |
Investigators had identified two corridors of territory - one to the north and one to the south - spanning the possible positions of the plane about seven hours after take-off. | |
This was based on its last faint signal to a satellite - an hourly "handshake'' broadcast even when the main communication systems are switched off. | |
The plane lost contact with controllers over the South China Sea as it crossed from Malaysian to Vietnamese air space. | |
Malaysian officials say it then turned west and its last position - according to Malaysian military radar - was over the Malacca Straits, in the opposite direction to its planned flight path. | |
Attention has focused on the crew and on Wednesday multiple unidentified US officials said that the FBI was helping Malaysia analyse data from a flight simulator taken from the captain's home. | |
Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, at a press conference on Wednesday, stressed the captain should be considered innocent until proved otherwise and said that members of his family were co-operating with the investigation. |