Australia Says It May Have Found The Plane

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that two objects have been found in the Indian Ocean that could be debris from the missing Malaysian Airlines jet.

"I would like to inform the House that new and credible information has come to light," Abbott said at the start of Question Time in the House of Representatives.

The potential debris was identified from satellite imagery.

"Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified," Abbott said.

A P-3 Orion has been diverted to the area and three more are on their way. Abbott said the objects would be difficult to find, and may not be related to the jet, which has been missing for more than 12 days.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority will hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m. AEDT.

"Three more aircraft will follow," he said. "They are tasked for (a) more intensive follow up search."

"We must keep in mind the task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and it may turn out that they are not related to the search for flight MH370," Abbott said.

Further images of the supposed debris are expected to come in from commercial satellites, Australian Maritime Safety Authority general manager John Young said during a press conference.

The objects are indistinct in the current imagery, Young said. He noted that they're "of reasonable size" and that the largest piece is being assessed as being about 78 feet long.

Search planes, including aircraft from the U.S. Navy, will be searching the site.

Young said the satellite imagery is the best lead they have right now.

Here's the full statement that Young released to the media:

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is coordinating the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft, with assistance from the Australian Defence Force, the New Zealand Air Force and the United States Navy.

AMSA's Rescue Coordination Centre Australia has received satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search for the missing aircraft, flight MH370.

RCC Australia received an expert assessment of commercial satellite imagery on Thursday.

The images were captured by satellite. They may not be related to the aircraft.

The assessment of these images was provided by the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation as a possible indication of debris south of the search area that has been the focus of the search operation.

The imagery is in the vicinity of the search area defined and searched in the past two days.

Four aircraft have been reoriented to the area 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth as a result of this information.

A Royal Australian Air Force Orion aircraft arrived in the area about 1.50pm.

A further three aircraft have been tasked by RCC Australia to the area later today, including a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion and United States Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft.

The Poseidon aircraft is expected to arrive at 3pm. The second RAAF Orion is expected to depart RAAF Base Pearce at 6pm.

The New Zealand Orion is due to depart at 8pm.

A RAAF C-130 Hercules aircraft has been tasked by RCC Australia to drop datum marker buoys.

These marker buoys assist RCC Australia by providing information about water movement to assist in drift modelling. They will provide an ongoing reference point if the task of relocating the objects becomes protracted.

A merchant ship that responded to a shipping broadcast issued by RCC Australia on Monday is expected to arrive in the area about 6pm.

Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Success is en route to the area but is some days away from this area. She is well equipped to recover any objects located and proven to be from MH370.

The focus for AMSA is to continue the search operation, with all available assets.

The assets are searching for anything signs of the missing aircraft.

Weather conditions are moderate in the Southern Indian Ocean where the search is taking place. Poor visibility has been reported.

AMSA continues to hold grave concerns for the passengers and crew on board.

Flight MH370 - which had 239 people on board - has been missing since it seemingly vanished from its flight path on 8 March, en route to Beijing from Malaysia. After extensive search efforts involving several countries, the investigation has centered around the possibility the plane was hijacked.

Authorities identified two potential flight corridors the plane may have taken after it was diverted from its intended route. Australia has been leading search efforts in the Indian Ocean. The other corridor would have taken the plane north west to Asia.

Investigations turned to the pilots, crew and passengers as it became increasingly unlikely the disappearance was the result of an aviation accident. This week it was revealed a flight computer in the cockpit was manually programmed to take the plane off course.

Malaysian officials recently refuted claims the jet had been seen be residents over the Maldives, a remote island nation in the Indian Ocean.