The search in the southern Indian Ocean for signs of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was suspended Thursday due to bad weather.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said through its Twitter feed that all aircraft were returning to Perth and all ships were leaving the search area.

Six military aircraft from four countries and five civil aircraft were scheduled to join the search Thursday along with four Chinese ships and one Australian vessel.

The search area is more than 2,500 km from the southwest Australian city of Perth. "Weather in the search area is expected to deteriorate later on Thursday," AMSA said in an update published on its website on Thursday.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) also predicted stormy weather for the search zone on Thursday.

"This is only going to be a narrow window of opportunity by the looks of things, because another weather system is moving in for Thursday, which looks like that will bring an increase in winds again and also lead to a reduction in visibility through the rain associated with the cold front," BoM spokesman Neil Bennett told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

On Wednesday, the Malaysian government announced that analysts had found in satellite photos from France 122 unidentified objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean search area. AMSA confirmed on Thursday the positions of the objects were within the search zone, about 2,500 kilometers south-west of Perth.?

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)