Australian authorities said on Thursday that they were sending aircraft to the southern Indian Ocean after satellites found two objects that could possibly be related to the Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing almost two weeks ago.
They said the objects, the largest of which was estimated to measure up to 24 meters, were approximately 2,500 km (1,500 miles) south of Perth and could be submerged in several thousand meters of water.
The images were "indistinct" but credible enough to redirect resources to the search area, John Young, general manager of the emergency response division at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), said at a news conference.
"I don't want to draw too much from that [satellite image]. This is a lead, it is probably the best lead we have right now, but we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them to know whether this is really meaningful or not," he said. "I caution that they [the objects] will be difficult to find, they may not be associated with the aircraft."
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur with 239 passengers and crew on board. It vanished from civilian air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast less than an hour after taking off.
The AMSA said that four aircraft have been re-orientated to locate the objects. Young said one aircraft was already in the area, with a U.S. navy aircraft probably already on site.
Two more aircraft were expected to arrive in the search area later in the day and a merchant ship has also been diverted to help.
"I think it is certainly the most credible sighting that I have heard anything about since we've been at this and I can't imagine how it could be just a false alarm that has very little merit given that it was the [Australian] PM [Prime Minister] that announced it," said Jim Tilmon, a former American Airlines pilot and President & CEO of aviation consulting firm Tilmon Group.
Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament earlier on Thursday that "new and credible information" has come to light in the search for the missing plane and Malaysian authorities confirmed that there was a new lead in the investigation.
The AMSA's Young added that the search effort for the objects could be hampered by poor visibility.
"The focus for AMSA is to continue the search operations with all available ships and aircraft, searching for any signs of the missing aircraft," Young said. "Weather conditions are moderate in the southern Indian Ocean where the search is taking place, however poor visibility has been reported and this will hamper both air and satellite efforts."