Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the search for missing flight MH370 is now "entering a new phase". He said the effort would now be "focussed on searching the ocean floor" over a "much larger area" than is currently being covered.
The US Navy is sending a black box locator able to receive signals from up to 20,000 feet below sea level as efforts to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight continue.
The TPL-25 Towed Pinger Locator System will add a "significant advantage" to search efforts should a debris field be found, the Navy said in a statement.
"Basically, this super-sensitive hydrophone gets towed behind a commercial vessel very slowly and listens for black box pings," said Commander Chris Budde, US Seventh Fleet Operations Officer.
Sending the locator now means authorities will be able to respond as quickly as possible "since the battery life of the black box's pinger is limited", he added.
The relatives of passengers onboard flight MH370 know there is a huge need to keep the media’s interest in their campaign for the truth.
How has the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane progressed in the month since its disappearance?
Ships hunting for a missing Malaysia plane have picked up separate acoustic signals in different parts of a vast Indian Ocean search