Two ships Friday commenced a subsurface search for the black box of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after no confirmed debris has been found from the jetliner nearly four weeks into a massive hunt.
Equipped with a US towed pinger locator, Australian navy vessel Ocean Shield will be coupled with British warship HMS Echo to comb a single 240-km track converging on each other, Angus Houston, chief of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) leading the search, told a press conference in Perth in Western Australia.
The Echo is fitted with an array of sensors and side-scan sonar for surveying the ocean floor, Xinhua reported.
The black box contains a locator beacon which sends out a signal that can be picked up by search equipment and the beacon is designed with a battery life of about 30 days.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur shortly after midnight March 8.
The Boeing 777-200ER was scheduled to land in Beijing the same day. The 227 passengers on board included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.
Despite extensive scouring of remote southern Indian Ocean by planes and ships off the coast of Perth, where the plane is believed to have crashed, no trace has been found.
According to the latest update of JACC, a total of 10 military planes, four civil jets and nine ships are assisting in Friday's search for the missing jet.
"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has determined a search area of about 217,000 sq km, 1700 km north west of Perth," it said.
"Today's search area will focus on three areas within the same vicinity," it added.
According to the update, 26 State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers from Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria are working as air observers on three of the civil aircraft. The other civil aircraft will operate as a communications relay.
"The weather forecast for today's search is fair, with visibility approximately 10 km and a cloud base between 1000 and 2000 feet," the JACC update said.
Australia, meanwhile, has accepted Malaysia's invitation to join the investigation into the disappearance of the jet as a fully accredited member, according to Xinhua.
"Australia has agreed both to lead the search and as an accredited representative to provide support for the Malaysian investigations," said Houston, who briefed Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on the Australia-led retrieval effort during the latter's tour to Perth Thursday. The US, Britain and China are also accredited members.
Australia and Malaysia are currently drawing up a comprehensive agreement regarding Australia's role in search and investigation, such as critical decision points, the handling of accident victims, custody of aircraft wreckage and the downloading of intonation from flight recorders that might be recovered, Houston said.
According to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, Malaysia, the country of the flight carrier, is responsible for the investigation.
An Australian team made up of four senior investigators is in Kuala Lumpur for the lost aircraft-related investigation and for ensuring that relevant investigation information is considered while mapping out search strategies, he added.
