Military search planes have been flying over a remote part of the Indian Ocean to see if two large objects spotted in satellite images are debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The plane disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board.

One of the objects spotted by satellite was 24 metres (almost 80ft) in length and the other was 5 metres. They were sighted about 2,500km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, Western Australia.

"If it turns out that it is truly MH370 then we will accept that fate," said Selamat Bin Omar, the father of the jet's flight engineer. But he cautioned that relatives still did not know for sure whether the debris was from MH370 or something else. "We are still waiting for further notice from the Australian government," he said.

Some analysts said the debris were unlikely to be pieces from the missing plane. "The chances of it being debris from the airplane are probably small, and the chances of it being debris from other shipping are probably large," said Jason Middleton, an aviation professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.