Ten ships and ten aircraft are searching a massive area in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, continuing to look for some trace of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370.

Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, chief of Australian Navy, said: "The first real step here is to find some debris, so we can backcast and pin point an impact point to give us an initial search area, because this capability is not a wide area search capability, it is a localisation capability."

An Australian navy ship, the Ocean Shield, has been fitted with a sophisticated U.S. black box locator and an underwater drone. It is expected to leave the Australian Navy Base in Rockingham later on Sunday, and to reach the search zone in three to four days.

The beacon of the black box on the Malaysian plane will stop to function in approximately nine days.

Though numerous objects have been spotted in recent days, none have been confirmed as coming from Flight MH370.