The latest satellite images, captured on Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus Defence and Space, are the first to suggest a debris field from the plane, rather than just isolated objects. The items were spotted in roughly the same area as other objects previously seen by Australian and Chinese satellites.
At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Hishammuddin said some of them “appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials”.
But experts cautioned that the area's frequent high seas and bad weather and its distance from land complicated an already-trying search.
“This is a really rough piece of ocean, which is going to be a terrific issue,” said Kerry Sieh, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore. “I worry that people carrying out the rescue mission are going to get into trouble.”
Officials from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said Thursday's search was split into two areas totalling 78,000 square kilometres (30,000 square miles).
Planes and ships from the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are involved in the hunt, hoping to find even a single piece of the jet that could offer tangible evidence of a crash and provide clues to the location of the wreckage.
Malaysia said on Monday that an analysis of the final known satellite signals from the plane showed that it had gone down in the sea, with no survivors.
That data greatly reduced the search zone to an area estimated at 1.6 million square kilometres (622,000 square miles), about the size of Alaska.
