Australian Maritime Safety Authority

Low cloud and rain has hindered Australian efforts to find debris seen yesterday 2,500km south-west of Perth, that may be linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. A pilot returning from the search zone described the weather conditions as “extremely bad”.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is intensifying their efforts to identify two objects seen on an commercial satellite images in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, 2,500 kilometres south-west of Perth.

The large objects, which were spotted by satellite five days ago, are the most promising find in days as searchers scour a vast area for flight MH370, which is lost with 239 people on board, including six Australians.

An RAAF Orion plane was unable to locate the debris overnight because of limited visibility from cloud and rain. “The weather conditions were such that we were unable to see for very much of the flight today but the other aircraft that are searching, they may have better conditions,” Flight Lieutenant Chris Birrer told reporters.

A reporter aboard a US Navy aircraft told America’s ABC network that their sweeps of the area yesterday only turned up a freighter and several pods of dolphins.

“This is a plane that gets very close to the water, most of the time we were skimming at about 300 feet (about 90 metres) above the water – you could see a basketball if it were in the water,” he said.

“Plus they had high-tech radar, sweeping 16 miles (about 25km) on each side of the plane. If there was something there, this plane surely would have spotted it.”

Hoegh St. Petersburg – courtesy Hoegh Autoliners

Australian search planes will continue the hunt for the debris today, along with aircraft from the US and New Zealand. Also, a Norwegian ship the Hoegh St Petersburg (a RO-RO car carrier) has arrived in the 23,000-square-km search zone last night after diverting its route from Port Louis in Mauritius to Melbourne, after responding to an Australian request for assistance. The ship will travel back and forth over a set route in an attempt to identify the objects seen by the sattelite. The ship however does not have capacity to lift any found objects out of the sea.

Another merchant ship is travelling to the area, one of six involved in the search since a shipping broadcast was issued last Monday night.

The search is continuing.

Two objects that may possibly 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 24m/78ft in size, the other 5m/15ft, and the sighting of the objects was said by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to be ‘credible and potentially important’.

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

Two pieces of wreckage that could possibly be 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

The debris was spotted on satellite imagery and a total of four aircraft have been sent to investigate the sighting, some 2,300km/1,553 miles off the coast of Perth.

It is not uncommon for cargo to fall off a container ship into the water, however the objects were in the designated search area and the fact that there were two objects of varying sizes makes it important to locate and examine them. The depth of the water in the area where the possible debris has been sighted would likely make recovering the CVR/FDR data recorders to ascertain what happened on board Flight MH370 extremely difficult but not impossible.

If this is where MH370 crashed, the waters here are 3,500m/10,000ft (3.5km/2miles) deep. This is twice the depth that Air France Flight AF447 was found after crashing into the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Rio De Janiero to Paris in 2009.

After considering all options associated with this flight, I am still off the opinion that a catastrophic event took place on board MH370, the crew tried return to Malaysia, but were overcome before they could save the aircraft, which flew on with autopilot engaged until fuel exhaustion occurred.