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Australian maritime authorities have found two objects off the coast of Perth in the southern Indian Ocean that could be related to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Parliament on Thursday that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) had "received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search."
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"Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified," he added. "I can inform the House that a Royal Australian Air Force Orion has been diverted to attempt to locate the objects."
Abbott also warned people not to jump to conclusions until authorities had more opportunity to investigate.
"The task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult, and it may turn out that they may not be related," he said.
Here's video of Abbott notifying Australian Parliament:
The Abbott government spoke to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak about the findings, CNN reported.
John Young, of AMSA, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference that the two objects were "of a reasonable size," and located 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) off the Perth coast. The largest object appeared to be about 24 meters (78 feet) in size.
#AMSA briefing: search aircraft will locate objects, report accurate GPS position for ships #MH370 pic.twitter.com/vTIdTXDKlE
Advertisement— Simon Crerar (@simoncrerar) March 20, 2014"We need to get there, find them, need them assess them" Young said of the objects. He added that it's not unusual for large debris -- such as shipping containers -- to be found floating in the ocean.
