The possibility of a catastrophic failure of systems on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has not been ruled out as search for the plane entered its 13th day.

Malaysia's Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in reply to a question at a press conference on Thursday that the possibility of a catastrophic event is still being pursued even as investigators believe that someone deliberately switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it off its scheduled course.

The international search for the plane is continuing in both the northern and southern "corridors" where it is believed most likely to have flown.

The methodical shutdown of the communications systems and the plane's apparent planned course after turning back, has focused attention on the pilot and co-pilot. But background checks of the crew as well as the passengers have not yielded any clues.

Australian officials said earlier on Thursday that search aircraft and ships from Australia, New Zealand and the US were headed to investigate the latest "credible" leads on two objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia. The objects, spotted by a satellite, are thought to around 2,500 km southwest of Perth.

No confirmed wreckage from the plane has been found since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.