A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion aircraft searches for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 over the southern Indian OceanReuters
The US Navy's Towed Pinger Locator 25 (TPL-25) has been brought to Australia to assist the ongoing hunt for the black box of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the remote southern Indian Ocean.
The navy equipment, which can be used to detect signals in up to 20,000 ft depths, would help in pinpointing the exact location of MH370's black box using 'pings' - (high-pitched signals for detection).
Consisting of a tow fish, tow cable, winch, generator and a control console operated from topside, the locator would be towed to another vessel to track down the flight recorder.
The pingers on the commercial aircraft's black box, which has a battery life of 30 days, usually emit short signals every second at 37.5 kHz.
The US naval equipment would be able to detect signals which are transmitted anywhere between 3.5 kHz and 50 kHz. The US has also sent a robotic underwater vehicle.
The black box is expected to provide answers to several key questions pertaining to the mysterious disappearance of the Boeing 777 passenger jet with 239 people aboard.
Meanwhile, the search operations to find the plane's wreckage has resumed in the stormy stretch of the southern Indian Ocean after it was hampered by gale force winds, rain and huge waves.
At least 12 aircraft, led by Australia's search team, will be scouring the suspected debris region while the jets will be accompanied by several vessels.
"Today's search is split into three areas within the same proximity covering a cumulative 80,000 sq kms. AMSA (Australia Maritime Safety Authority) has tasked a total of 12 aircraft today to search for possible objects in the search area," the agency said in a statement.
Six countries - Australia, New Zealand, the US, Japan, China, and South Korea - are participating in the hunt.
"We are just going to keep on looking because we owe it to people to do everything we can to resolve this riddle. It is not absolutely open-ended but it is not something we will lightly abandon," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Nine Network.
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