MH370: Search area refined to 57,506 square kilometres

Today the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totalling approximately 57,506 square kilometres. The centre of the search areas lies approximately 2200 kilometres north west of Perth.

Up to 11 military aircraft, one civil aircraft and 14 ships will assist in today’s search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield continues more focused sweeps with the Towed Pinger Locator to try and locate further signals related to the aircraft's black boxes.

The AP-3C Orions continue their acoustic search, working in conjunction with Ocean Shield. The oceanographic ship HMS Echo is also working in the area with Ocean Shield.

This work continues in an effort to narrow the underwater search area for when the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is deployed.

There have been no confirmed acoustic detections over the past 24 hours.

The weather forecast for today is south easterly winds with isolated showers, sea swells up to one metre and visibility of five kilometres in showers.