A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft searching the area where an Australian satellite traced possible debris found nothing on Thursday and headed back to its base, authorities said.
The sophisticated anti-submarine aircraft, which can scan an area of up to 10,000 square miles, was bound for the western Australian city of Perth to refuel, officials said shortly before 5 a.m. ET.
The plane searched the area for four hours and did not find "any evidence at all” of debris that authorities said might be related to missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370.
However, other aircraft from Australia and New Zealand remained airborne over the area where satellites traced two objects.