Searchers checking latest objects for link to jet

Planes and ships combed the newly-targeted area off Australia's west coast on Saturday for possible debris from the missing Malaysian jet, as Australia's prime minister said preparations were progressing on getting a black box locator into the search zone. Australian officials said that objects spotted floating in the search area need to be recovered and inspected before they can be linked to the plane. The objects, first spotted on Friday, include two rectangular items that were blue and gray, and ships on the scene will attempt to recover them, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. Newly analysed satellite data shifted the search zone on Friday, raising hopes searchers may be closer to getting physical evidence that Flight MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean on March 8 with 239 people aboard. That would also help narrow the hunt for the wreckage and Boeing 777/200ER’s black boxes, which could contain clues to what caused the aircraft — flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur — to be so far off-course. The newly targeted zone is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) northeast of sites the searchers have crisscrossed for the past week. The redeployment came after analysts determined that the Malaysian Airlines plane may have been traveling faster than earlier estimates and would therefore have run out of fuel sooner, officials said. Five P-3 Orions — three from Australia and one each from Japan and New Zealand — plus a Japanese coast guard jet, a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76, and one civilian jet have been acting as a communications relay were taking part in the air search Saturday, according to AP.