A plane has spotted objects in the Indian Ocean of the first day of searching a new location for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but officials say it will take until tomorrow to determine whether they are related to the lost plane.
The search area moved 680 miles to the north east earlier today, and a New Zealand military plane, one of nine aircraft involved in the hunt, found the objects, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said on Twitter.
Amsa said the find needs to be confirmed by a ship which is expected to arrive in the area tomorrow.
The search area was shifted after new radar data analysis suggested the jet flew faster than originally thought and would have used up more fuel, which might have reduced the distance it travelled.
Amsa said the change in search area came from new information based on continuing analysis of radar data between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca before radar contact was lost with Flight 370 early on March 8.
"This is our best estimate of the area in which the aircraft is likely to have crashed into the ocean," said Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The new search area is more than 600 miles north of an area in which apparently floating objects were spotted by Japanese, Thai and French satellites earlier this week.
Mr Young said those satellite images "may or may not actually be objects" and acknowledged that the search had moved away from that area.
He said it was not unusual to make such changes and dismissed questions that the earlier searches had been a wasted effort.
"This is the normal business of search and rescue operations - that new information comes to light, refined analyses take you to a different place," he said. "I don't count the original work as a waste of time."
The new area is 123,000 square miles and about 1,250 miles west of Perth. The sea depth in the new area ranges from 6,560ft to 13,120ft, Mr Young said.
Australia's HMAS Success and five Chinese vessels are on their way, and that the Success is expected to arrive tomorrow night local time.
Strong winds and currents have made it difficult to pinpoint objects spotted so far, and the search has yet to produce any trace of the plane.
Malaysian officials said earlier this week that satellite data confirmed the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.
Authorities are rushing to find any piece of the plane to help them locate the so-called black boxes, or flight data and voice recorders, that will help solve the mystery of why the jet, flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, flew so far off-course. The battery in the black box normally lasts about a month.
The new search area is closer to land and has calmer weather than the previous one, which will make searching easier, officials said.