Australia said late on Friday that five international aircraft had spotted “multiple objects of various colours” in the new search area some 1 850km west of Perth.
Flight Lieutenant Jamin Baker was on a New Zealand Air Force Orion which spotted several items and dropped a marker buoy in “an area of interest”.
“Obviously we don’t know if these (objects) are associated with the aircraft yet but it certainly looks like we are seeing a lot more debris and just general flotsam in the water, so we could be on to something here,” Baker said.
One Chinese navy ship was in the area and would be trying to recover objects on Saturday, while other ships were steaming to the area, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
Malaysia says the Boeing 777, which vanished less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was likely diverted deliberately but investigators have turned up no apparent motive or other red flags among the 227 passengers or the 12 crew. — Reuters