China has diverted its icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, to a location where a Chinese military plane has spotted suspicious objects while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

Attention and resources in the search for the Boeing 777 have shifted from an initial focus north of the equator to
an increasingly narrowed stretch of rough sea in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the plane’s original flight path.

Aircraft flying on Monday have been focused on searching by sight, rather than radar, which can be tricky to use because of the high seas and wind in the area.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8.

Investigators believe someone on the flight shut off the plane’s communications systems.

Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot. That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but
investigators have not ruled out technical problems.