Missing Malaysian Plane #MH370 Latest: 'Possible debris' spotted off Australia

Aircraft and ships ploughed through dire weather on Thursday in search of objects floating in remote seas off Australia that Malaysia's government called a "credible lead" in the trans-continental hunt for a jetliner missing for nearly two weeks.

The large objects, which Australian officials said were spotted by satellite four days ago in one of the remotest parts of the globe, are the most promising find in days as searchers scour a vast area for the plane lost with 239 people on board.

A Norwegian merchant ship arrived in the area on Thursday, but officials cautioned it could take days to confirm if the objects were part of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777. Malaysia's government said the search would continue elsewhere despite the sighting in the southern Indian Ocean.

The area where the objects were spotted is around 2,500 km (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth, roughly corresponding to the far end of a southern track that investigators calculated the aircraft could have taken after it was diverted.

"Yesterday I said that we wanted to reduce the area of the search. We now have a credible lead," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

A search for the plane that began in the tropical waters off Malaysia's east coast has now switched to the vast, icy southern oceans between Australia, southern Africa and Antarctica.

Two Royal Australia Air Force AP-3C Orions, a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon and a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion were involved in Thursday's search which was called off late in the evening and will resume on Friday.

There have been many false leads and no confirmed wreckage found from Flight MH370 since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.

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