Search for plane MH-370 intensifies as 'suspicious' objects spotted

Chinese planes on Monday spotted "suspicious" objects in the southern Indian Ocean as the search for the Malaysian airliner intensified with more nations joining the hunt for the missing jet in the desolate area.

The "white and square" objects were spotted by crew of a Chinese Ilyushin-76 plane searching for the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - that went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board - off Australia.

"The crew has reported the coordinates - 95.1113 degrees east and 42.5453 south - to the Australian command centre as well as Chinese icebreaker Xuelong, which is en route to the sea area," reported state-run Xinhua news agency, whose reporters were on board.

According to Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), 10 aircraft were involved in today's search for the MH370 which entered its fifth day.

"Two Chinese military aircraft departed about 8.45am and 9.20am respectively. A RAAF P3 Orion departed for the search area just after 9am (local time)," it said in a statement.

Two ultra-long range civil jets, a second RAAF P3 Orion, a third ultra-long range jet, a US Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft, the two Japanese P3 Orion aircraft were also part of the search operations.

France yesterday provided new satellite images of possible debris of the airliner while in another possible lead, Australia said it has spotted a wooden cargo pallet in the southern Indian Ocean, expressing "increasing hope" of a breakthrough in locating the jet.

"The French sighting is I guess a piece of new material because that is in a completely different location. That is about 850 kilometres north of our current search area," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.

"So we need to check that out as well."

However, he cautioned that it was yet "certain that the aircraft is even in this area".

"We're just, I guess, clutching at whatever little piece of information comes along to try and find a place where we might be able to concentrate the efforts," Truss said.

The hunt for jet - that disappeared from radar screens an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese nations - was intensified with India, China and Japan deploying surveillance aircraft yesterday.