Breaking News:Malaysia Plane Search Update: Object Of Interest Found On Western Australian Coast.

An "object of interest" in the search for missing Malaysian Airlines plane has been recovered on the coast of Western Australia, several
hours drive south of Perth, officials said.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan described the object as appearing to be sheet metal with rivets.

"It's sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs," he said. "We take all leads seriously."

But Dolan also added strong words of caution: "The more we look at it, the less excited we get."

The object was picked up near Augusta, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Perth, a source with the Australian Defence Force told CNN.

The source also described the object as having rivets on one side with what appears to be a fiberglass coating.

When asked about the shape and scale of the object, the source described it as "kind of rectangular," but torn and misshapen.

The source said it was too difficult to estimate the size because they had only seen one photo with no clear scale.

The object of interest is in the custody of a police agency in Western Australia. Authorities there wouldn't comment further because it's a federal investigation.

The photos have been passed along to Malaysian investigators, and the Australian safety bureau was examining them to assess how to proceed.

A determined effort

The hunt for the Flight 370 is a determined effort, but there have been few headlines so far.

A high-tech underwater drone was completing its 10th mission on Wednesday, without finding any sign of the Boeing 777 jetliner.

The Bluefin-21 has scanned about 80% of the intended territory.

Stormy weather postponed the air search for a second day on Wednesday. The ships plying the waters off the coast of Australia kept their vigil.

And despite the search efforts for MH370 repeatedly coming up empty during these 47 days, there's no suggestion the hunt in the southern Indian Ocean is anywhere close to ending.

Quite to the contrary, according to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

"We are not going to abandon ... the families of the 239 people who were on that plane by lightly surrendering while there is reasonable hope of finding something," he said on Wednesday. "We may well re-think the search, but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery."

Long-term strategy

Malaysian and Australian authorities are already mapping out a long-term strategy for the search, which could conceivably go on for months or years, if the two-year search for Air France Flight 447 is any guide.

Guidelines drafted by Malaysia raise the possibility of a significantly wider search area should the current underwater search fail to turn up evidence of the plane. The document discusses how best to deploy resources, including new underwater search assets.

Investigators would love to find the flight data recorders from Flight 370, a potential treasure trove of information into what happened to the jetliner and the 239 passengers and crew on board.

If found, the black boxes would likely go to the Australian Transport Safety Board's accident investigation lab.

But it's up to the Malaysians where they want the boxes to go, because this is officially their investigation.

Australia is just one of a handful of countries that have the capability and technical know-how to decipher what's inside a black box.

Source:CNN