A Norwegian ship today reached an area of the Indian Ocean where possible debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane was spotted, shipping company Hoegh Autoliners said.
"The ship has arrived at the site to take part in the search," said Cecilie Moe, spokeswoman for the Norwegian company.
No object likely to have come from flight MH370 has been recovered at this stage, said Christian Dahll, another spokesperson for Hoegh Autoliners.
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"The ship will travel along a route provided by Australian authorities until nightfall," he told AFP.
"After that, we will assess the situation with the Australian authorities."
Sturla Henriksen, director general of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association, said that the search area extends over a distance of "60 nautical miles, around 100 kilometres".
The St Petersburg, a vehicles carrier, will travel "back and forth (along the route) in the hope of finding what has been identified as debris", Henriksen told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, adding that the ship does not have any capacity to retrieve objects from the sea.
The vessel was on its way from Port Louis in Mauritius to the Australian city of Melbourne, when it was requested by the Australian authorities to reroute in order to identify debris spotted by satellite in the southern Indian Ocean.