KUALA LUMPUR,  March 20 — The next step for investigators would be to try and locate flight MH370’s black box as it could shed light into what happened to the Malaysia Airlines plane when it went missing almost two weeks ago, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today.

“There is an urgency to find the black box... it will give us more information,” the acting transport minister said at a daily news conference in Sepang that was also broadcast live on television.

Hishammuddin also said Malaysia was looking into utilising submarines and sonar technology to locate the missing aircraft if it had crashed deep in the ocean, but pointed out that current technological assets available were “limited.”

Hishammuddin drew comparisons between existing search and rescue efforts with the Air France 447 crash in 2009, where it took authorities nearly two years to locate most the wreckage and bodies of the passengers.

“I can only compare with the Air France crash in the past because it has taken so long to locate the aircraft.

“The conditions in the Indian Ocean are similar to the Atlantic Ocean,” he added.

The minister pledged that the families of the missing flight passengers and crew would be updated should any new information arise.

“I will tell them whatever we find… the French team had to deal with families for two years,” he added, referring to the French government’s handling of the 2009 Air France flight AF447 disaster that killed all 216 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Earlier today, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) revealed satellite images showing several “indistinct” objects some 2,500km off the coast of Perth in Western Australia

AMSA said it has directed its assets, including three P3 Orions — two of its own and one from New Zealand — and a US P8 Poseidon to scour the area to verify whether the objects were part of the missing MH370.

Australian air force crew said they were unable to locate the debris in the area due to poor visibility caused by cloud cover and rain, but AMSA said it would continue its search.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was headed to Beijing with 239 people when it lost contact with ground control shortly after take-off on the morning of March 8.

The wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft was at the time believed to have disappeared from view at 1.30am when it was facing northeast to Vietnam, less than an hour after it left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 12.41am.

At 7.24am the same day, one hour after MH370 was due to arrive at the Beijing airport and over six hours after last contact, MAS issued a press statement to confirm the plane’s disappearance.

Malaysia has now become the target of criticisms from the world over as the search for MH370 continues to wield no answers, irking the Chinese especially, who have 153 of their own on board the missing aircraft.

China’s Premier Li Keqiang had asked Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to provide details about the missing flight “in a timely, accurate and comprehensive manner”

Some desperate relatives have threatened to go on hunger strike in an attempt to get answers about the missing aircraft from Malaysian officials.