satellite signals from the plane. essentially the two objects that they found are believed to be found by a satellite image, and so they are going to have to take the satellite image fly the planes outside... ..it's been a frustrating search, obviously for the families and the officials involved. really unprecedented in the scope of this search for this missing plane. they had - the malaysians had a number of countries to please look at the satellites. the chinese said they devoting 21 satellites to scour the area. we don't know which country or

satellite, but something they saw raised hopes, concern that they may have found something. the australians, as alan diehl was saying have an excellent investigative aviation force, and they have, i am sure, looked at the industry. i wouldn't be surprised if the ntsb and fbi have as well. they think it looks promising and they need to take a closer look - which is what they are doing. if they find it is from the aircraft, they'll retrieve it and bring in assistance from the air... >> let me interrupt you. there's sound from the prime minister what he said a few moments ago. let's listen. >> i would like to inform the house that new and credible information has dom light in the light of the search for flight

370. the australian maritime safety authority received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. following specialist analyst of this satellite imagery two possible objects related to the search have been identified. i can inform the house that a royal australian air force orion has been diverted to attempt to locate the objects. this orion is expected to arrive in the area at about this time. three more aircraft will follow this orion. they are tasked for more intensive follow up search. i have spoken to my malaysian counterpart prime minister najib razak, and informed him of the developments. i should tell the house, and we must keep this in mind - the task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult, and it may turn out that they are not related to the search for

flight 370. >> that was the australian prime minister tony abbott. i have our own lisa stark on the telephone as well as former ntsb investigator alan diehl, anything strike you about what the prime minister said. >> he's being very reasoned, and even though we have seen the objects on the satellite, we have to find them in the water. they have obviously seen them from the satellite, and they don't know if they are from the aircraft. remember, a few days ago, or i don't know how many, we have been involved in the horrible search, but at one point there were chinese satellite images that supposedly identified the objects, but they weren't supposed to be released and weren't of the search. >> they turned out not to be true. >> exactly. it turned out not to be true. we are hoping that this is a

positive development, but we have to be cautious until we know that they've located the objects and what they truly have found. >> reminding the viewers are expecting a statement from the australians at the bottom of the hour. probably in about 25 minutes from now. alscrn, what did you think -- allan, what did you think you learnt from the prime minister? >> i think lisa summed it up well. i think he's being guarded. we don't want a re-run of the chinese satellite mistakes. but, you know, clearly this ain't over yet. even locating them - i hope they haven't moved. i think it's day over in that part of the world, so i imagine the guys at langley, the c.i.a. and the air force - there's similar satellites, they know where the australians found it, and known what satellites the australians have, but i know - the cliche they can read a licence plate, i imagine there's

a lot of satellite view finders scanning that location where the debris has been spotted. >> let me bring in todd curtis, an aviation contributor - we have lost him. we'll hang with it, try to get him back on the line. as we continue to watch and weight for the news conference. we have lisa stark on the telephone and alan diehl. i want to repeat for the people that might be joining us, according to the australian prime minister, there has been satellite images that have discovered two pieces of something that may be part of the missing malaysia airlines flight. the prime minister says that they are sending aircraft - have sent aircraft out to that search area and that they are looking for - to get more information

about those two objects and whether or not they might be related to the plane, but the prime minister - i thought - it was very interesting. the prime minister called it new and credible information, lisa, and it would be hard to imagine that the prime minister would speak to parliament about something, unless they are - unless he was pretty certain that there was a good possibility of this, right? >> i do think that - i do think he has to have some - as he put it, credible information. he doesn't want to mislead people for raise falls hope or make the families more distraught. clearly they know - they are more confident than they might let on that they have found something. but, again, i - i just want to be cautious until we know what it is. but i do agree, i do agree that he did call it credible, and he

has made obviously a public statement, indicating that they are out there looking in this area, which gives a lot of credence to the fact that they may have fund something interesting. >> if they have the satellite images, how difficult is it to take it up, put it in an airplane and figure out where it is? >> i'm not i understand your question. >> if they have satellite images from above. how do they take the information, send it to the airplanes, and pinpoint the object? >> i would imagine - the objects are moving all the time. they would give them vek tors. they probably have latitude and longitude, small margin of error. they are probably punching in the gps, global positioning satellite navigation and flying to the last-known point and

looking out the window with the radar, trying to located it. that's why i imagine they are doing it. i have to believe that the australians - i worked with their investigators, in the civil and military arena. they are very good. >> talk about that. i mean, what sort of resources do they have compared to say malays malaysia. >> they have more sophisticated technology than malaysia, they are the leaders in the region. they are not as big as the ntsb, but they are very good. i know they've been involved, you know, with a number of accidents there, and they tend to always offer their assistance to the other countries that may not have the capability, so i think if the prime minister said that, i would bet the australian ntsb version of the ntsb has had people look at the photographs

of satellite images and say "yes, that could be a chunk of the aircraft", and "yes, that looks like it might be also", before he would go before parliament and make the statements. >> i know a lot of people are tuning in. we have breaking news that there may have been - and we emphasise, "may" - two objects found that could belong to the malaysian jetliner. this is what the australian prime minister said a little while ago. >> i want to inform the house that new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 in the southern indian ocean. the australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the

search have been identified. i can inform the house that a royal australian air force orion has been diverted to attempt to locate the objects and is expected to arrive in the area at about this time. three more aircraft will follow the orion and are tasked with intensive follow-up search. i spoke with my malaysian counterpart najib razak and informed him of the developments. i should inform the house that the task of locating the objects will be extremely difficult scrks it may turn out that they are -- and it may turn out that special analysts

to possible objects related it the search have been identified. >> we are expecting a news conference from australia at 12:30 eastern time this morning. we'll bring that to you live. in the meantime i have lisa stark on the telephone. our own lisa stark, who covered many an aviation story, and alan diehl, an ntsb investigator. now todd curtis, our aviation contributor. todd, what do you make of this story? >> i think this is a significant development, in that australia, for its - it has a long and closely involved role with the united states with military and intelligence activities, given what the president spoke to earlier, about having a shared typical intelligence with

malaysia with respect to aviation, he hinted the atypical things that are not shared may be in thing of the united states. it wouldn't surprise me if the assets, such as the satellites alluded to by the prime minister, included u.s. intelligence assets. >> could you repeat that todd, and kind of expand on it. >> certainly. to make a long story short, the united states, as a party to an investigation in an incident like this typically shares assets that are related to aviation. the ntsb, the faa, other civilian information such as radars and such, and the expertise coming from civilian agencies. what is not shared in an international investigation is military assets and intelligence assets. >> spy sat lites. you're correct, yes. the president had an interview

where he said typical assets were shared with malaysians, hinting that there were atypical assets not shared with the malaysians. there has been an ongoing and very close relationship with the australians. i add that in the middle of australia there has been, for several decades, an intelligence gathering station rub by the u.s. in part, used to gather electronic and other intelligence from the region. it would not surprise me if the united states and australians are working closely to use intelligence-type assets to find intelligence of the aircraft. the announcement, in a sense, did not surprise me. >> lisa, you talked about how the prime minister was careful in his statement, but at the same time revealing some brand new information that could change your the story dramatically. >> absolutely. i have to say earlier today the australians have been talking about the fact that they were able to narrow the search because of work done by the

ntsb, the national transforation safety board. they had taken a look at the satellite pings we have been talking about, coming from the aircraft. they had been able to narrow the search area, cut it in half off the coast of australia and moved it a little closer to the coast - obviously still far out to sea. i think that helped because they were able to zero in on an area that was half the size - still large - but half the size they were looking at previously. maybe that paid off and allowed them to find what may be, what we can hope are the first pieces of wreckage from the aircraft. >> hopefully, if that's the case, big ifs, finding the black box. alan diehl, you talked about this. go back in detail. if these are underwater, how do you find the black boxes? >> they send out an acoustic signal for up to 30 days. we know the batteries last for

30 days. they guarantee that manufacturers guarantee that they can travel, survive 20,000 feet of water. i don't know if there's anything that deep in the indian ocean. i know there's one 16,000 feet, but basically they sit there and they are water act vated - one for each black box, and they ping away until the batteries run out. as lisa was saying, we are talking about a large area. i don't know - i haven't googled this yet, i don't know what the water depths look like. in the western indian ocean away from australia you had the 16,000 foot french whether the south african airways 747 black boxes ended up in the wreckage, and we were able to recover one of those, and they didn't get there for two years, okay. the very - you know, this is still a big problem trying to

find them. sound like we know a lot. i assume everyone is right, that this is part of the airplane, it's time for the oceanographers and meteorologist to look at the tide and see where they think the parts were 13 days ago. then that will focus a lot, at this point. and probably simultaneously, these p3 orions, and there's a new version. p 8. >> alan, the u.s. does have a p8 in australia helping with the search. >> i stand correct. lisa. go ahead. >> it was unclear from the prime minister's remarks whether it was that aircraft is one of the ones following the australian one to take a lock. the p8 is in perth, australia and is helping in the search in that area.

one navy op is there. >> guys, i want to show the map that we had there. this is a map showing on the right-hand side perth australia off the coast. and then the area, the planned search area, about 2300km off the coast. i want to give people an idea of how far the search area is from australian coast, and then you look at the two lines, and they talk about the routes that the plane could have taken over that - over that search area. but that is still an enormous amount of water, right? >> it is, and it's a key to using satellites. the search area is roughly the size of colorado. and it will be difficult to have an aerial survey in a short period of time. if there's clear weather, and you have overhead satellite

imagery, it can be an easy thing to find. one of the things that i find interesting. two of the things is the australians have dispatched four of their p3 orion's, which is roughly 23% of the fleet. says to me there's an intention on there part to have several hours in a row of surveillance in the area, for whatever purposes - probably to track the items. earlier the prime minister, in his carefully worded statement, mentioned that these were identified somehow. it says to me a couple of things were going on - they are fairly large objects, whatever they were, and the resist lugs of the satellites -- resolution of the satellites used is it could be used to identify an object. that means we are talking about not necessarily commercial satellite for earth monitoring, but something of a military nature. the name of the satellite - what

is interesting... >> sorry, i just want to interrupt and show our viewers that you are looking at the pictures in canberra of a news conference that we expect to take place, i would say, in less than 10 minutes. that camera shot went up. go ahead. my fault. go ahead, todd. >> the fact that there are no satellite, commercial companies making claims that they supplied the images says that it's probably a noncommercial satellite used for the images. >> okay. so just so, again, to give you perspective on the map. we are talking about 1400 miles between the australian coast and that search area. alan, given what is going on now, and we'll get more details on it and what mann power and assets in australia, the united states and others may be moving into that area. how much - how much can they put into the search like this now.

>> we have 150 pcs, and i'm glad that todd said the other three aircraft are australian p3s. they did have a p8 in the area. i think we have six or eight p8s in the pacific. they are slightly better than the p3. president obama could order 20 or 30 or 40 of the 140 pcs to augment australia. australia has 12 p3s, so we can bring in a lot of equipment and pcs and they can drop the sonar boys, and the listening devicers. the pingers don't have a great range. >> when you say not a great range, what do you mean? >> they guarantee a few miles. underideal conditions in shallow water, and no whale noise or

algae, you can hear them further away many times, but they guarantee a few miles, so we have to be close. these p 3 drops, the sonar boys are like - basically they are listening devices that float on the surface listening for s submarine noises, pingers. we have to get a lot of assets. unless we luck out - remember, debris on the surface doesn't necessarily mean that's where the aircraft is. it could be hundreds of miles away. i bet the united nations are probably recalling their fleet and we'll probably september assets... alan, i'm going to interrupt you, we have andrew thomas in sydney australia. what light can you shed on this,

andrew? >> well, the fact that the australian prime minister stood up in parliament and announced this in person, suggests that this is a serious and potentially breakthrough development. he does not say what the latest rumour is on twitter or online. he talks when there's credible information. that's what he described this add. we'll know more in the next few moments, because the maritime safety authority, the people looking in the area of the southern indian ocean, they are due to give a press conference beginning in about 10 minutes time. we should get more information then. as you have been saying, what has been said is two objects have been spotted deep into the so-called southern vek tore where the plane may have ploflo to the southern vector, if it was an issue that the plane ran out of fuel and may have gone

down. specialist satellite imagery was used to hone in on the images, that's what tony abbott said led to an incredibly potentially important develop. an australian orion spotter plane is at the site. three other planes - they are going to the same narrow position where the satellite imagery has been seen. at the moment it's no more than two photographs of - sorry, two objects on a photograph. we had, of course, false leads before. it may be no more than that. tony abbott, the australian prime minister was at pains to point that out in parliament. but the very fact he stood up and said all this in person suggests it could be more than that. >> let me interrupt you for a second. the team is standing by. we'll take a quick break. we'll come back, the news conference is to begin in the

next few minutes. we'll be back with that live after this.

>> you're watching al jazeera america, i'm john seigenthaler in new york, and we have breaking news to report. associated press says there's a development in the miss ing malaysian airlines flight 370. the prime minister of australia confirms that and the malaysian minister, who says two objects from the jet may have been found out in the southern indian ocean. that's the search area on the left, the green box. that's the area they had planned to search, and according to the prime minister of australia, he says that satellite images showed two objects that may be related to this missing jet.

in canberra australia, we are looking at a press conference that may begin shortly, but andrew thomas is standing by to continue this conversation. i think that, you know, what you pointed out is fairly key to all this, is that the australian prime minister wouldn't go before parliament and on worldwide television to talk about this unless there was some credible information, right. >> that's right. tony abbott is a cautious man, not someone to speak before being fully briefed. that is what makes the development very significant. he stood up every couple of days in australia they have question time in parliament, where mps can ask what is pertinent. normally it's rumbuctuous, this was different because tony abbott wanted to make an announcement at the start of the session. >> let me interrupt. the briefing is coming on.

>> my colleague is aircomdar john mcgarry from defense. i'll make an opening statement before oping up to you for questions. all times i used will be expressed in australian eastern daylight sifings time or canberra time. the australian maritime safety authority is coordinating the southern corridor search for the missing malaysia airline aircraft, with the assistance from the australian defence force, the royal new zealand air force and the united states navy. the rescue coordination centre australia received satellite imagery of objects related to the search for the missing aircraft flight 370. rcc australia received an expert assessment for that satellite imagery this morning, 20th march. >> the images were captured by satellite. they may not be related to the

aircraft. the assessment of these images was provided by the australian go spacial intelligence o organization, or ago, as a possible indication of debris south of the search area that has been the focus of the southern search ration since monday, 17 march. the ummage is in the vicinity of the search -- imagery is in the vicinity of the search area defined and searched in the past two days. further images are expected after commercial sat lie takes higher images of the area of interest. these will be provided. four orion aircraft have been reoriented, 4,200km south-west of perth, as a result of this information. a royal australian air force

orion aircraft arrived in the area about 1:50 pm this afternoon. a further three aircraft have been tasked by rcc australia including a royal new zealand air force orion and the united states navy poseiden aircraft. the poseiden should be on the scene now. the second australian orion departed royal australian air force base pearce at 2:00 pm this afternoon and will be on scene at 6:00 pm this afternoon. the new zealand orion is due to depart at 4:00 pm this afternoon, and should be on scene at 8:00 p.m. a royal australian aircraft cis 30 herbinglies has been tasked to drop marker boys. these as rcc australia by

providing information about water movement to assist in drift modelling. they will provide an ongoing reference point if the task of relocating the objects is protracted. a merchant ship that responded to a shipping broadcast issued by rccs australia on monday is expect to arrive in the area about 6:00 pm, having been diverted by rcc australia. the royal australian navy war ship hmas "success" is on route to the area but is some days away. she is equipped to recover any object located and proved to be from flight 370. the focus or a m.s. a is to continue of the search operation with all available ships and aircraft. the ships and aircraft are searching for any signs of the missing aircraft. weather conditions are moderate

in the southern indian ocean where the search is taking police. however poor visibility has been reported, and that will hamper air and satellite efforts. a m.s. a holds grave concerns for the passengers and crew on board, and i must emphasise that these objects may be very difficult to locate and they may not be located to the church. air-commodore mc-gary and i will be willing to take questions. >> reporter: what do the objects look like? >> the objects are indistinct on the imagery, i'm not an expert in assessing the imagery, but those that are indicate that they are credible sightings. the images are objects of relevant side and probably awash with water, bobbing up and down out of the service. >> reporter: can you giver us

an idea of the size dash dark like of a basketball or a seat cushion? >> larger than that. the largest imagine i have seen is assessed at 24 metres and another smaller and a number of other images in the general area of the biggest one. >> reporter: you said the aircraft arrived at 1:50, do you have any reports? >> the aircraft reported on the weather on scene, and that's where it get the information that there's poor vis illy, and perhaps air-commodore mc-gary can talk about that. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] has the aircraft been relocated. >> there's no sightings >> reporter: what will the merchant ship do, will it pick the objects up if it gets there.

>> the most likely scenario is an aircraft will find an object if it is findable and report back at an accurate gps position, and a m.s. a will task the ship to proceed to the area and total to see if. that would be the first chance to get a close-up look at whatever the objects might be and progressively advance the identification of whether they are associated with a search or not. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] what day was the satellite imagery provided? >> we were provided it from the ago this morning. i might ask air commodore mc-gary to speak about the imagery. >> the imagery has been progressively captured by satellite passing over various areas. the task of analysing imagery is difficult and requires drawing down frames, going through frame

by frame. at the moment this imagery was discovered to reveal an object that might indicate a debris, we passed the information from defense to a m.s. a >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> look, quite simply, it is credible enough to divert the research to this area on the basis that it provides a promising lead to what might be wreckage from the debris. if you want to elaborate, john? >> the only elaboration is we have been in this business of doing search and rescue and using satellite images, and they do not always turn out to be related to the ascertain, even if they look good. we will hold our views until

they examined close up >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> i'm unable to advise on that. >> reporter: you mentioned further satellite images, when will you get that. >> ago will continue to provide support for the operation. the ability to retask assets - commercial and others - to enable us to focus on an area to support the search will be a priority. i'm unable to give you advice on when additional imagery or whether it might hold further clues. >> reporter: you said the other day that the water here was deep. do you have a specific idea of how deep the water is, and what would be the nature of it? >> i apologise, i remember taking the question but i understand it will be several thousands metres deep, and i'm speculating, but i will check it and get the information back to you. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]

>> we'll check it and get the information to you. >> reporter: 2,300km from here, how many hours to reach that destination? >> that area is approximately four hours flying time for the p3, enabling us to spend two hours or a little more, perhaps, on station once we get to the ascertain area. >> reporter: how much fuel do re ethey have? >> two ours of endurance once we are on station. i can't give you how many pounds or gallons of fuel that might e quat to >> reporter: mr young, what would your response to the families be that have been waiting 12 days for news? >> i would advise that a m.s. a is doing their level best to find anyone that may have survived, if, indeed the aircraft came into the southern

corridor and if the objects are asserted, that will put us into a more accurate search hear. >> reporter: you described the operation the other day as trying to find a needle in a haystack. is it surprising that you detected these objects in the search? >> i don't want to draw conclusions from this. we have two separate forms of analysis here. you might recall on the slide here two yellow arrows pointing to analysis done by the united states national transportation safety board about the movements of the aircraft. that has focussed search, and we have now seen satellite imagery of two objects or a number of objects there. i don't want to draw too much from that. this is a lead. it is probably the best lead we have right now. but we need to get there, find them. see them, and assess them to know whether it's really meaningful for not. i caution again, they'll be difficult to find, they may not

be located - associated with the aircraft and we have plenty of experience with that and other searches. >> this sparked a flood of further assistance to australia? >> defense, we have had offers potentially from other countries for military assets. the distance for the search area lends itself to certain types of aircraft with long range and marine-type capabilities, it's a long way off the mainland. we are working through defence channels to facilitate assistance if the other nations are able to support. >> reporter: you haven't taken on anything. >> we condition to work with the nations to see how they can assist >> reporter: have the chinese offered. we are aware of the chinese taking an interest in working in the southern area, but we continue to work with nations to integrate them into the search.

>> reporter: just to be clear... >> can i add to that that we provide regular briefings for the countries involved in this search. including in the rescue coordination centre, and we are - where afaxas come in an a daily basis, so we can keep them informed about what is going on. >> just to be clear, all your resources now are devoted to the area, you are not continuing to search any other area. >> you're correct. in is close enough to the national transportation safety board's assessed area, to be a possible sight, and we want to find them and work out what they are. that's the priority at the moment. >> in terms of this area of ocean, how often would one spect to find a large piece of debris like this floating.

is it a common occurrence or something - aircraft crews, would they see objects floating as a consequence of storms or is it unusually large? >> our experience is that there is debris out there. it can be containers were ships, for example, falling overboard and other objects of that type. on this particular occasion the size and the fact that there are a number located in the same area, really makes it words looking at. i -- worth looking at. i don't want to speculate about what they are, until we get there and see them. >> reporter: is it just two piece, and the dimensions of the others? >> no, i can't tell any more about that. >> sorry, when you said 24 metres earlier in the press conference. you mean lengthwise, along what sort of object.

>> the image - the satellite image has a blob with an assessment of 24 metres against it, which is the assessment that's been made by the expert that assessed it. >> reporter: is there any oil or anything like that? >> you can't tell that from the satellite imagery. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] . >> there are many steps to happen before we get to that point. we have to locate it, confirm that it belongs to the aircraft, recover it, and then bring it along way back to australia. so that would take some time. what we are looking for is a confirmation that it does belong to the aircraft, or it does not, and we'll consider what follows from that. >>

>> reporter: [ inaudible ] at least part of an aircraft, are there wounds -- windows, markings... >> the imagery is not that precise. >> we are working to provide imagery for you. i don't have it with me at the moment. we are working to provide imagery that we can release for media purposes. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] . >> sorry >> reporter: [ inaudible ] . >> information will be released in media statements as usual. i suggest you talk with a m.s. a's media people after the conference. >> reporter: when do you realistically expect to have information based on the assets you have out there. >> it's in the nature of search and rescue operations that i cannot answer that.

we have four aircraft out there this afternoon. the weather is not playing the game with us. we may get a sighting, we may not. we may get it tomorrow, we may not. we'll continue to do this until we locate the objects or are convinced we cannot find them. thank you very much, everyone. >> reporter: are you able to give us an idea of [ inaudible ] >> that was john young, the general manager of emergency response for the australian maritime safety authority, some surprising new developments early this morning. it is afternoon in australia. they have discovered two objects, maybe more. it indicates possibility a debris field as we heard from one of the officials there on the ground in australia. and that may be part of the malaysian - the missing malaysia airliner. one of the objects is said to be 24 metres, about 79 feet. it said it was a long object connected, as he described, a

blob. but there are a couple of objects there. it seemed to indicate that there might be more. starks and alan diehl are following the story. what struck you about what you just heard, lisa? >> i was struck by the fact that he did seem to indicate that there were more than the two objects we originally heard, one 79 feet, fairly good size. he indicated that it was just south of the area where the ntsb had hypothesised or i should say figured out based on their analysis. so all of that taken together, i think, is what made them feel cost that they might have something here, and why they were launching four different aircraft - one from the u.s., one from new zealand, a couple from australia, to go take a closer look. he did - as you said, john, and i picked up on as well - he did seem to indicate there were additional pieces than the two

that we had first heard about. although he said certainly things float in the water all the time, it was the fact that there was a large piece, there were other pieces in the area, and the fact of where it was located in regards to the search area that gave them confidence that they may have something here, as well as whatever analysis they had done, and they have a couple of different expert analysis looking at the images before they launched on the safe. >> alan diehl, a former ntsb investigator, he's on the phone with us - he said the 79 foot long object was awash, which means what? >> i assume it's partially submerged, i think he was saying. maybe that's something about the right size for part of the winning, and the other thing that andrew mentioned is that this is at the extreme edge of the range of the aircraft, okay.

what that tells me, is the fuel tanks would have been empty, that heaps that the wing might float. the fuel tanks are in the wing. the bad news is there's not going to be fuel bubbling to the surface, which would lead back to the main wreck im, good and bad new, i suppose. >> let's bring in todd curtis. what struck you about what you just heard? >> well, what struck me was the detailled nature of what was going on. the details, and also about the logistic all issue of having all the aircraft out on station, and keep in mind these aircraft were designed to hunt submarines and ships, and can operate in day and night conditions, and under low visibility. though he cautioused the audience -- cautioned the audience that there might be cloud, they have the ability to see things.

now, to give the audience an idea of how much of a trip this will be, he mentioned there was 2500km from perth, roughly the disaps from new york city to -- distance from new york city to sannan tonio. four hours out, two hours circling, that's a travel across the united states. >> about 1500 miles or something like that? >> that's correct. that's correct. and again, that's significant a trip. although it's long, it may seem tiring to the average airline passenger. these are crews used to doing very long duration, very tiring missions where it's detailed oriented, where they search for usualry things hiding from them. in this case, something awash on the surface of the sea, it will be a lot easier to find. >> the other thing that was troubling, i guess, in some way,

lisa, is that the weather is not cooperating. really, the only option for - at this point would be, i assume, from the air, not necessarily from the sea; right. >> i think at this point, it's so far out, this area, in the middle of nowhere, basically, that that is one of the reasons we call off the search, because they felt it was not worth it. they needed to go by air, they had a big area to cover. they mentioned there was a shift informant region which is being diverted to the area, and they are obviously sending an australian naval vessel, it would take a few days for that vessel to arrive. they do need things. they want to put ships in the area, but as far as the search goes, it is just too big an area. they have to do this by air. as they mentioned, they are tasking commercial satellites, he said, to get better images

bringing those or diverting those to the area to get a closer look as well. they'll keep looking from really high up, not just in the airplanes. >> if you are watching us now and joining us and up late on the east coast or joining us on the west coast, we have breaking news. there's two objects found in the southern indian ocean off the coast of australia, a good ways off the coast. authorities indicate that it is possible these lents could be debris from the malaysia - missing malaysia airliner that is ha been gone - vanished, that's been gone for 12 days. two objects, one of them about 79 feet long, that apparently is floating and what submerged. i want to play a little sound from john young, the general manager of emergency response for the australian maritime safety authority. this is what he just had to say.

>> a m.s. a's rescue coordination centre australia has received satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search for the missing aircraft flight 370. rcc australia received an expert assessment of the satellite i g imigry this morning 20th march. the images were captured by satellite. they may not be related to the aircraft. the assessment was provided by the australian geospacial gel intense organization, or ago because that's a mouthful as a possible debris in the or that's been the focus of the southern search since monday, 17 march. the image is in the vicinity of the search area defined and searched in the past two days. >> alan diehl on the telephone with us. what is next?

>> well, i'll tell you. one thing, when you keep in mind, the p 3s - i used to train p3 crews with the navy before working with the ntsb, so in a bad visibility - these are aircraft designed to look for subs, so they might be able to pick up a piece of debris awash, even in bad visibility. that is bad news. i think the other thing lisa and i were talking about, the p8s, the poseiden, the new craft, that has better radar. these planes have ipp fra red -- infrared imaging, but we'll have a lot of ways of tracking the data, but we have to get a surface vessel or a helicopter in there, i guess to pick up the debris and make sure it's part of the a triple 7 aircraft. >> i believe the u.s. navy has a

uss "blue ridge," i believe, if the philippines. they were in hong kong before, a long way from the philippines. >> that's a long way. >> let's talk about the data marker buoys, what do they do? >> they float on the surface. they'll look at the currents. if i sfood the briefing, they are -- understood the briefing, they were not sure if they had better information. the smoke markers are, assume they are smoke markers floating on the surface, measure how fast they are moving and calculate the as far as or the velocity. those will be handy. we are trying to refine the search. we are talking about a large area. if it's 1500 miles off the australian coast stretching for hundreds of miles, we are talking about a big area, and any help you can get is

important. that is - that is what they do. >> todd, i want to go to you now. as far as the satellite images, i guess because of the weather, they are not going to be able to see the images for a while again. they are left with the images that they have, right? >> that's correct. and i like to add, and this is something not spoken to directly - there may be other satellite-type assets which are not going to be talked about publicly. the united states has substantial assets that can see visible, infrared and other kind of detection equipment. there may be all sorts of things brought to bear that we are not going to hear about. it's not necessarily a bad thing. the assets were there. they found a clue. they'll confirm it. >> it's an important bit of information. ladies and gentlemen, stand by for a second.

lisa, and todd and alan, we'll continue our coverage at the top of the hour here, but there is in breaking news. the australian authorities now say that satellite images discovered two objects maybe more that might indicate a debris field, and it could be the missing malaysia jet. we'll have more coverage at the top of the hour here on al jazeera. don't go away. we'll be right

>> you're watching al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york, and breaking news to tell you about. new developments in the miss ing malaysia airlines flight. the a