Search Intensifies for Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 intensified Friday morning as authorities in Australia sought out two mysterious objects, spotted by a U.S. satellite, that could be a piece of the missing jetliner.

There has been no new sign of the objects since Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott spoke on Thursday of "new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean."

"We will do everything we humanly can to try to get to the bottom of this,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, adding that Australia is “throwing all the resources we can at [the search]."

So far that includes four military aircraft and six merchant ships that have been directed towards an area 2,500 kilometers southwest of Perth, a city on the country's western shore. As of 2:30 p.m. local time, a RAAF P3 Orion plane and a merchant ship were in the search area. Three more planes were on the way. These planes can only stay airborne over the search area for two hours, however, due to the distance to and from Perth.

A map of the search area on day four. Credit: Australian Maritime Safety Authority

The two objects, with the largest spanning about 79 feet, are "probably the best lead we have right now," Australian Maritime Safety Authority official John Young said at a media briefing on Thursday. "But we need to get there to know if it's really meaningful or not."

"The indication to me is of objects that are of a reasonable size and probably awash with water and bobbing up and down over the surface," the AMSA official said.

Satellite imagery provided to AMSA of objects that may be possible debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in a revised area 185 km to the south east of the original search area. The imagery has been analysed by specialists in Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation and is considered to provide a possible sighting of objects that has resulted in a refinement of the search area. Credit: Commonwealth of Australia - Department of Defence

He cautioned that the area is already swirling with debris from ships that have "tipped over," and other maritime trash. But "they're credible sightings," he said.

An expert on the region, meanwhile, cautioned that "the current there is one of the strongest in the world," according to Yahoo News. "We are in a most isolated part of the world. In fact it probably doesn't get, if I can be so bold, more isolated," Australian Defence Minister David Johnston told Sky News Australia, calling any potential recovery a "logistical nightmare."

We will continue to update this post with more news of the situation as it arises.