Search for Malaysian airliner suspended despite new satellite lead

Air crew searching for signs of Malaysia Airlines flight MH307 had to cut short another fruitless day scouring the southern Indian Ocean Thursday due to bad weather as Thai authorities announced a major new satellite lead.[Special coverage]

In the largest possible debris find yet, Thailand's Geo- Informatics Space Technology Development Agency said it had spotted in satellite photos about 300 objects about 2,700 km southwest of the city of Perth, western Australia.

The objects, scattered over an area of 450 square km, were estimated to be two meters to 15 meters in size.

The discovery was announced just a day after the Malaysian government announced 122 objects, ranging from 1 meter to 23 meters, had been seen 2,557 km from Perth.

It was also within the search area for debris from the missing aircraft.

However, the air search was cut short Thursday as bad weather again closed in.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on its Twitter feed at just after 1 p.m. Perth time that the search was being suspended and all aircraft were returning to Perth and ships will leave the area.

However, an hour later, AMSA announced that the four Chinese ships and one Australian vessel would remain in the area and continue the search.

The bad weather was expected to continue for 24 hours.

The AMSA said the search area would cover 78,000 square km Thursday, down from 80,000 square km over three areas the previous day.

Six military aircraft from four nations Australia, China, the United States and Japan and five civil aircraft had been scheduled for the search Thursday.

The Malaysian government announced Thursday that it would send a team to Perth to assist in the search operation.

China's Ministry of Defense also said another two ships were preparing to help with the search.