The search in the southern Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet began early Wednesday (late Tuesday ET) as weather conditions improved over the previous day, Australian authorities said.
Searchers from six countries — Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, South Korea and the United States —resumed scouring for the doomed airplane around 8 a.m. Wednesday (local time) — just a day after bad weather hampered operations, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
The search area Wednesday will cover a cumulative 30,000 square miles southwest of Perth, Australia.
The HMAS Success, a Royal Australian Navy ship, was "on its way back to the search area," where it will do a sweep of an area identified Monday as "the location for several objects of interest," AMSA said in a statement.
A total of 12 aircraft — five civil and seven military aircraft — are involved in Wednesday’s search operation, officials said. The Success and the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long (“Snow Dragon”) were already in the search area just before 8 a.m. local time.
A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft were also due to participate in the hunt Wednesday, officials said.
AMSA said the operation had staggered departure times between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. local time.