Officials say objects scooped out of the ocean are not part of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Source: AAP
THE Australian navy ship given the job of finding the black box recorder of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is preparing to leave Perth with still no clue as to the missing plane's whereabouts.
But it could potentially have a longer window to track down the black box in the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean than had been feared.
The Ocean Shield, which leaves Perth on Monday on an initial 30-day mission, has been fitted with US Navy equipment designed to electronically hunt for the box, including a towed pinger locator and unmanned underwater drone.
With the ship not likely to reach the search zone west of Perth for several days, it had been feared the 30-day life of the satellite "pinger" within the black box could expire before the equipment arrived.
But Captain Mark Matthews, the US Navy supervisor of salvage and diving, revealed on Sunday that while the pinger is certified for 30 days, it could last for up to another 15 days.
That gives authorities more precious time to find the box, which should provide crucial clues as to the fate of MH370 and its 239 passengers and crew.
"These are rated to last 30 days, but that is a minimum. In my experience they do last a little bit longer than that," Capt Matthews said.
"I would say 45 days is the realistic limited expectation."
The towed pinger locater on the Ocean Shield has a range of 1.6km and depth capability up to 6000m, with the search set to be conducted at a speed of just 5km/h.
An unmanned underwater drone will also be on board, ready to dive once the pinger locater has found a signal to map the sea floor and photograph potential debris there.
As 10 planes and eight ships descended on the search zone on Sunday, there was still no confirmation of any debris from MH370 being found.
Captain Matthews said without solid proof of the crash, they would not be able to begin to search for the black box.
"We don't have a defined search area yet. We have our challenges in front of us," he said.
In the meantime, the crew, along with Australian and Chinese ships, would join the surface search for debris.
Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced former Defence Force chief Angus Houston would lead a new joint agency co-ordination centre in Perth that would communicate with all international search partners and the families of those on the missing plane.
"Should our responsibilities increase as time goes by, there is no one better placed than Angus to co-ordinate and liaise given the quite significant number of countries that all have a stake in this search," Mr Abbott said.
Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy said the aim was still to locate debris and confirm it was from flight 370, then to work backwards to a possible crash site.
Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Ray Griggs said the best people in the field were now involved in the search.
"It is a significant co-ordination challenge which is proceeding extremely well. These are an exceptionally talented group of people," Admiral Griggs said.
Ocean Shield will leave the naval base at Garden Island south of Perth with enough supplies for 45 days before having to return to shore.
Flight 370 disappeared on March 8 after veering sharply off course while heading from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
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