An Australian aircraft has spotted four orange objects at sea authorities hope are a clue to the whereabouts of missing Flight MH370.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement Monday that thanks to favorable weather conditions it had managed to conduct a search of a 5-mile area which had yielded four objects longer than 2 meters in length.
Russell Adams, a lieutenant in the Australian air force, said if the favorable weather conditions continue the objects could be collected for anaylsis.
"We really want to investigate those objects to give ourselves the best chance of identifying them before we come home," Adams added.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Monday that there is no time limit in the hunt for the Malaysia Airlines plane, which is believed to be somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
I'm certainly not putting a time limit on it, Abbott told reporters.
Flight MH370 went missing after losing radio contact with Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control after leaving Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8. The Beijing-bound flight carried 239 passengers including 12 flight crew from 14 different countries.
After a week of searching in the South China Sea and Strait of Malacca, the search has been expanded from 14 countries to 25 covering an area stretching from the south of the Indian Ocean to Central Asia.
Using satellite and radar images from other countries, the aircraft was believed to have turned back from its original flight path and followed a route between navigational waypoints (aviation corridors N571 and P628).
N571 or waypoint Vampi is used by commercial airplanes traveling to the Middle East while P628 or waypoint Igrex is used to fly to Europe.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
