Perth, Australia: Ships rushed to the location of floating objects spotted on Monday by Australian and Chinese planes in the southern Indian Ocean close to where multiple satellites have detected possible remains of the lost Malaysian airliner.

One ship was carrying equipment to detect the plane’s vital black box, but it remained uncertain whether the vessels were approaching a successful end to the search or another frustrating dead end.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called his Malaysian counterpart, Najeeb Razak, and informed him about objects that had been found in the search, Malaysian national news agency Bernama reported. Razak later said that analysis of satellite data showed that the plane landed in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors.

Earlier, Abbott said in Canberra that the crew on board an Australian P3 Orion had located two objects in the search zone — the first grey or green and circular, the second orange and rectangular. The crew was able to photograph the objects, but it was unclear if they were part of an aircraft.

An Australian navy supply ship, the HMAS Success, headed into the area to get a closer look but weather conditions and visibility were poor, according to John Young, manager of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s emergency response division.

“You may find that we will be doing this for maybe three or four more days before we are confident that we’ve either found all the objects there, or if they are there, we simply cannot find them,” Young said.

Data marker buoys dropped into the search zone by aircraft showed currents were moving in different directions, which Young said “is an indication of water that’s not going anywhere in particular, which is better for searching — it means we don’t have to move the search area a lot.”

Separately, the crew aboard one of two Chinese IL-76 aircraft combing the search zone observed two large objects and several smaller ones spread across several square kilometres (miles), Xinhua News Agency reported. At least one of the items — a white, square object — was captured on a camera aboard the plane, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

“We are still racing against time,” Hong said at a ministry briefing. “As long as there is a glimmer of hope, our search efforts will carry on.”

China has redirected the icebreaker Snow Dragon toward the latest find, and that ship was due to arrive early Tuesday. Six other Chinese ships have been directed toward the search zone, about 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth, along with 20 fishing vessels that have been asked to help, Hong said.