AN UNDERWATER drone is to be deployed to track down the missing Malaysian aircraft, officials said today.
After six weeks of searching with no results, the black box on board Flight MH370 has stopped sending out location pings and experts assume the battery has died.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned on Saturday that a long search lay ahead of the military teams posted to the hunt.
"No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," he said.
The last of four strong signals was heard on April 8, coming from the Indian Ocean, 15,000 feet below the water's surface.
However, the signals have narrowed the search area to a 500-square-mile patch of sea floor, allowing for the submersible robot to scour for wreckage.
The Bluefin 21 submersible will need from six weeks to two months to complete its search.
Equipped with sonar and low-light cameras, it successfully found a crashed F-15 fighter jet off Japan's coast last year.
CONFERENCE: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited Beijing to discuss the situation [GETTY] Flight MH370 vanished on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.
Mid-flight the plane flew off-course towards Australia's west coast, according to satellite data.
Malaysian authorities have still not ruled out mechanical issues causing the plane's disappearance, but there is evidence suggesting the plane's flight path was deliberately diverted.
Counter to a previous report, Malaysian defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein denied that the flight's co-pilot tried to make a phone call shortly before plane disappeared.
He claims that he would have been informed of the phone call much earlier if it was genuine.
After six weeks of searching with no results, the black box on board Flight MH370 has stopped sending out location pings and experts assume the battery has died.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned on Saturday that a long search lay ahead of the military teams posted to the hunt.
"No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," he said.
"There's still a lot more work to be done, and I don't want anyone to think that we are certain of success."“There's still a lot more work to be done, and I don't want anyone to think that we are certain of success”Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister
The last of four strong signals was heard on April 8, coming from the Indian Ocean, 15,000 feet below the water's surface.
However, the signals have narrowed the search area to a 500-square-mile patch of sea floor, allowing for the submersible robot to scour for wreckage.
The Bluefin 21 submersible will need from six weeks to two months to complete its search.
Equipped with sonar and low-light cameras, it successfully found a crashed F-15 fighter jet off Japan's coast last year.
CONFERENCE: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited Beijing to discuss the situation [GETTY] Mid-flight the plane flew off-course towards Australia's west coast, according to satellite data.
Malaysian authorities have still not ruled out mechanical issues causing the plane's disappearance, but there is evidence suggesting the plane's flight path was deliberately diverted.
Counter to a previous report, Malaysian defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein denied that the flight's co-pilot tried to make a phone call shortly before plane disappeared.
He claims that he would have been informed of the phone call much earlier if it was genuine.
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