Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said on Friday objects spotted on satellite images that sparked an international hunt in the remote southern Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have sunk.
The satellite images were taken on March 16.
"Something that was floating on the sea that long ago may no longer be floating," he told reporters in Perth. "It may have slipped to the bottom."
Truss said the search continued in treacherous seas in an area some 2,500 km (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth, and Australian, New Zealand and US aircraft would be joined by Chinese and Japanese planes over the weekend.
For his part, a top Malaysian official said investigators have no received evidence so far that two objects spotted by satellite in the Indian Ocean come from a missing passenger jet, .
He was speaking after a search force resumed the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the remote southern Indian Ocean, trying to confirm a potential debris field. REUTERS