Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak participates in a briefing on the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Pearce air force base in Perth, Australia, April 3, 2014. At the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak arrived in Perth on Wednesday for a two-day official visit. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wei/POOL)
PERTH, Australia, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to eight aircraft and nine ships will be involved Thursday in the hunt for missing Malaysian airliner MH370 and the search area will be adjusted to move further north, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said.
While briefing visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak about the international search effort in RAAF Base Pearce, Houston said that Australia is doing everything it can to assist Malaysia to find MH370 and to recover what they can from the Indian Ocean.
"It is the most challenging and demanding search and recovery operations I've seen and probably one of the most complex operations of this nature the world has seen," said Houston, who heads the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) coordinating the operation.
Najib also met with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott at the base near the west coast city of Perth.
The eight planes and nine ships will scour an area of about 223, 000 square km, 1680 km west north-west of Perth on Thursday.
The weather is forecast to fair, with visibility of approximately 10 kilometers despite some isolated showers in the southern area.
British submarine HMS Tireless and HMS Echo have arrived in the southern Indian Ocean to assist in the search for the plane and the "black box" flight recorders.
The Echo, a multi-role hydrographic survey ship, is fitted with an array of sensors and sidescan sonar for surveying in the ocean floor.
Australia's Ocean Shield navy vessel, equipped with a U.S.- supplied black box detector, is due to arrive at the search area on Friday.
Abbott on Wednesday vowed the search would continue, saying "we owe at least that much to the families."
An Australian E-7A Wedgetail aircraft capable of deconflicting air space in the search area also assisted in the mission which has dragged on for more than three weeks but turned out to be fruitless as yet.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) refined the area where the aircraft entered the water based on continuing ground- breaking and multi-disciplinary technical analysis of satellite communication and aircraft performance.
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Search area broadened, still no evidence of jet
PERTH, Australia, April 2 (Xinhua) -- About 10 planes and nine ships combed a broader swathe of sea in southern Indian Ocean on Wednesday but left searchers with no sign of the Malaysian MH370 jetliner more than three weeks after it vanished.
The 221,000-square-kilometer patch of sea, some 1,504 kilometers west northwest of Perth, doubled the size of the targeted area the previous day, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). Full story
China, Australia PM agree to step up efforts in searching for missing jetliner
BEIJING, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, agreed to continue to make all-out efforts to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in a phone conversation on Wednesday.
Abbott updated the Chinese premier with the latest developments in the search and rescue mission, as well as the ongoing investigation. Full story
