Search for MH370 continues after encouraging lead

Up to 14 planes and 13 ships will assist in Thursday's search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 following Wednesday's "encouraging lead" found by the Ocean Shield, the latest update from the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) said on Thursday.  [Special coverage]

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a search area of about 57,923 square kilometres, 2280 kilometres north west of Perth Thursday.

The underwater search continues Thursday, with the Ocean Shield at the northern end of the defined search area, and Chinese ship Haixun 01 and HMS Echo at the southern end.

In addition, aircraft and ships reported spotting a large number of objects during Wednesday's search, but only a small number were able to be recovered, the JACC said.

And weather conditions are reasonable in the search area. " Moderate south easterly winds with isolated showers are forecast. And visibility will be fair (5000 metres) during the showers," the JACC said.

The JACC also confirmed that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is continuing to refine the area where the aircraft entered the water.

This refining is based on continuing ground-breaking and multi- disciplinary technical analysis of satellite communication and aircraft performance, passed from the international air crash investigative team comprising analysts from Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Australia.