Kuala Lumpur/Perth, March 23
France today provided new satellite images of possible debris of the Malaysian airliner deep in the south Indian Ocean, even as search for the jet which mysteriously disappeared 16 days ago intensified with India, China and Japan deploying surveillance aircraft.

Australia’s Deputy PM Warren Truss (L) talks to a rescue operation team head in Canberra on Sunday. AP

In another possible lead, Australia said it has spotted a wooden cargo pallet in the southern Indian Ocean, expressing "increasing hope" of a breakthrough in locating the jet missing since March 8. The pallet along with belts or straps was spotted by one of the Australian aircraft deployed to hunt for the Beijing-bound Flight MH370 that disappeared from the radar screen, one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. "This morning, Malaysia received new satellite images from the French authorities showing potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor. Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue co-ordination centre," Malaysia Transport Ministry said in a statement.

This is the third set of images in a week of possible debris of the Malaysia Airlines plane in the area. It has not yet been established whether the French satellite images zeroed in the area where Chinese imageries spotted some floating objects.

Earlier, Australia and China also provided satellite images showing possible wreckage in a remote area of the Indian Ocean, however nothing concrete has been found by aircraft hovering over the area.

Though there is little doubt that the Boeing 777-200 has plunged deep in the remote parts of the ocean off Australia, what has baffled aviation authorities is that no trace of the plane has been found despite putting into use hi-tech surveillance systems.

More planes today joined the hunt in the desolate area in the Indian Ocean, about 2,500 km southwest of Perth, where three days of scouring yielded little results.

The Australian rescue co-ordination centre deployed eight aircraft -- four military and four civilian -- to the southern corridor today.

One Indian Navy P8 Poseidon and one Indian Air Force C-130J Super Hercules left Malaysia's Subang airport today to join the search and rescue operation in the northern part of the southern corridor, which is being led by Indonesia.

They arrived in Kuala Lumpur on March 21 following a commitment from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to assist Malaysia and render all possible assistance to it in locating the missing Boeing 777-200 with 239 persons, including five Indians and an Indo-Canadian, on board.

"New Chinese satellite imagery does seem to suggest at least one large object down there, consistent with the object that earlier satellite imagery discovered," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.

"Yesterday, one of our civilian search aircraft got visuals on some objects in the Australia search zone. (There were) a number of small objects, fairly close together within the Australian search zone, including a wooden pallet. Before we can be too specific about what it might be, we need to recover some of this material.

"It's still too early to be definite, but obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope - no more than hope, no more than hope - that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft," Abbott told reporters in Papua New Guinea, where he is on a visit. — PTI