WELLINGTON (AFP) - The personal jet of Oscar-winning movie director Peter Jackson was reported on Wednesday to have been called into assist with the search for the missing Malaysian airliner.

Australian authorities coordinating the search for Flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board said a civilian jet was being used to assist military aircraft scouring the Indian Ocean for any signs of the Boeing 777.

After initially denying it was Jackson's jet, a spokesman for the New Zealand movie director later confirmed it was his aircraft that had been chartered to Australian authorities, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Radio New Zealand said Jackson, who directed the The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit movies, had personally approved the use of his Gulfstream G650 in the search.

The jet was not donated to help in the search effort, rather the company which operated the jet had accepted a charter offer, the report said.

Gulfstream describes the G650 on its website as an "ultra-high-speed, ultra-long-range business jet" and the "flagship of the Gulfstream fleet".

It says it can carry eight passengers and a crew of four on nonstop legs more than 12,900km.