Malaysia hails credible lead in jet search

Malaysia has said that the two objects spotted by a satellite in the Indian Ocean were a “credible lead” in the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines passenger plane.

“We now have a credible lead,” Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Thursday.

This “requires us overnight to verify and corroborate it,” Hishammuddin said, adding that the overall search and rescue effort for the aircraft would continue in the meantime.

Earlier in the day, Australia said that two objects possibly related to the missing plane had been spotted on satellite imagery in the Indian Ocean.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the parliament in Canberra that an air force aircraft was diverted to the area to try to locate them.

The Orion aircraft was expected to arrive in the area Thursday afternoon, he said. Three additional aircraft are expected to follow for a more intensive search.

Abbott, however, cautioned that the task of locating the objects will be extremely difficult and “it may turn out that they are not related to the search for flight MH370.”

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, after taking off with more than 239 people on board.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the officials are exploring the possibility that the aircraft was diverted towards an undisclosed location after the pilot or some other person on the flight turned off the transponders.