MH370: Norwegian car carrier first to arrive on site

The Norwegian car carrier Hoegh St. Pettersburg which was initially on its way from Madagascar to Melbourne is the first ship to arrive in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia where two floating objects, suspected to be debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner, were spotted.

A spokesman at Hoegh Autoliners, Kristian Olsen on Thursday said it received a request from the Australian authorities to help in investigating the objects spotted by satellites around 2,500 km southwest of Perth.

Speaking to Reuters, he also added that the company will assist in the search as long as it is needed.

"The Norwegian vessel is the only ship in the area. Australian vessels are on the way but will probably take another 12 - 18 hours.

"It is night time right now, the crew can only do limited search but they will continue tomorrow morning," he said.

Norwegian Officials: "Vessel reaches the area where debris were spotted by satellite but so far nothing could be identified"
— Florian Witulski (@vaitor) March 20, 2014

Norwegian ship will report directly to Australian Authorities as soon as the search continues in daylight
— Florian Witulski (@vaitor) March 20, 2014

Australian officials on Thursday said that the larger object had measured up to 24 metres long and appeared to float on water several thousand metres deep while the second object was about five metres long.

The MH370 aircraft carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing on March 8.