The international effort to find the missing Malaysian airliner is being intensified, after Chinese satellite pictures showed what could be debris in the Indian Ocean.
Chinese military planes have arrived in Australia to take part in the search.
Japan and India are sending more planes.
Australian and Chinese ships are heading for the southern zone to join an Australian naval vessel already there.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said civilian aircraft had spotted a “number of objects”.
“It’s still too early to be definite, but obviously, we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope, no more than hope, no more than hope, that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft,” Abbott told reporters.
Planes took off from a Perth airbase on Sunday morning as part of the search. Australian authorities said eight aircraft would scour two areas covering nearly 60,000 square kilometres.
Flight MH370 disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
Investigators believe the communications system was switched off; they are focusing on possible hijack or sabotage but have not ruled out a technical fault.
