Royal Navy ship joins hunt for Malaysia flight

The Australian defence department released satellite images showing possible wreckage from MH370. Picture: AP

A ROYAL Navy survey ship has been sent to help with the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, after debris was sighted off the coast of Australia.

HMS Echo is in the area where two large objects have been spotted on satellite pictures, the Ministry of Defence said.

Earlier, four military search planes were dispatched to try to determine whether two large objects bobbing in a remote part of the Indian Ocean were debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein described the possible sighting as a “credible lead”.

Air Commodore John McGarry (L) listens as John Young, Australian Maritime Safety Aiuthority emergency response general manager. Picture: Getty

One of the objects spotted by satellite imagery had a dimension of 25 metres (82 feet) and the other one was smaller.

There could be other objects in waters nearby in the area that is a four-hour flight from Australia’s coast, said John Young, manager of Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s emergency response division.

“This is a lead, it’s probably the best lead we have right now,” he said, while cautioning that the objects could also be seaborne debris along a key shipping route where containers periodically fall off cargo vessels.

Mr Young told a news conference in Canberra, Australia’s capital, that planes had been sent to the area about 1,550 miles south-west of Perth to check on the objects.

He said that satellite images “do not always turn out to be related to the search even if they look good, so we will hold our views on that until they are sighted close-up”.

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott had earlier told Parliament about the debris, and said Orion search aircraft were expected to arrive in the area later today.

He said that a Royal Australian Airforce Orion has been diverted to the area to attempt to locate the objects.