KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Australian searchers moved 300km closer to the Western Australian city of Perth in the on-going hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines fight MH370 as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak flies in for a visit.

Australian daily The Age reported today British survey ship HMS Echo, along with nuclear-powered submarine HMS Tireless, have been deployed to look for debris or wreckage of the jetliner carrying 239 people in the southern Indian Ocean where investigators believe it went down on March 8.

“What’s really vital here is to find some wreckage, some debris on the surface of the ocean,” Australia’s former defence chief Angus Houston, who is now leading the search, was quoted saying.

“It’s only through that we will then be able to narrowly focus the search area so that we can start to exploit the underwater technology devices that will hopefully lead to where the aircraft is on the bottom of the ocean,” the retired air marshal reportedly added.

The submarine joined the US navy’s ADV Ocean Shield yesterday to locate the Boeing 777-200ER’s “black box”, which has a battery life of 30 days but is fast draining as the search enters its 27th day today.

The multi-nation hunt in the southern waters of the Indian Ocean have been altered several times.


Though searchers have picked up much junk littering the world’s third biggest ocean, little of the debris found has matched material on board MH370.

The Age also reported aircraft crew on board the Australian P3 Orion returned empty handed yesterday.

“We want to get out there and find something just like everyone else,” P3 Orion’s captain, Flight Lieutenant Dave O’Brien, was quoted saying.

Up to 10 planes and nine ships from over 12 countries scoured the vast stretch of the ocean, roughly the size of Britain, after Malaysian authorities concluded that the journey of passenger jet ended at the Indian Ocean.

The jetliner ferrying 227 passengers and 12 crew departed the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing on March 8 and disappeared from civilian radars less than an hour into the flight.

After more than a week of frantic search for the wide-body aircraft at the South China South, satellite data and military radars showed the plane had turned back west and continued flying for several hours before its signal was lost over the Indian Ocean.

Najib is visiting the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Pearce base today, where the multinational search team is currently based.