MH370: Search for missing plane resumes

Five aircraft had been sent by the Australian Maritime Safety Authoritiy (AMSA) to focus on a 23,000 square kilometre area about 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth.

A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P3 Orion departed for the search area at around 7.15am Malaysian time.

A civil Gilfstream jet and a second RAAF P3 Orion is due to depart for the search area at approximately 8am.

A third RAAF P3 Orion is due to depart for the search area at approximately 11am.

The United States Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft is due to depart for the search area at approximately 1pm today.

Due to the distance to and from the search area, the aircrach involved will have an endurance of approximately two hours of search time. They are investigating satellite data imagery which identified two objects possibly related to the missing flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.

Thursday’s search revealed nothing conclusive but the operation was bolstered by the Norwegian car carrier Hoegh St. Pettersburg.

The ship was the first to arrive in the southern Indian Ocean where two floating objects, suspected to be debris from the missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner were spotted.

Another merchant ship is en route to the area together with HMAS Success, a Royal Australian Navy ship which is expected to reach the search area on Saturday.

The images were captured on March 16 but due to the volume of imagery being searched, and the detailed process of analysis that followed, the information was brought to the attention of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on Thursday morning. One of the objects was 24 metres in length and the other was 5 metres.