PERTH, Australia, April 12 -- Up to 10 aircraft and 14 ships will assist in Saturday's search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, according to the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC).
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday that he was confident the signals heard over the past days were from the black box of the missing Malaysian flight.
"We have very much narrowed down the search area and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box," Abbott told reporters in Shanghai, China.
According to the JACC , the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totaling approximately 41,393 square kilometers. The center of the search area lies approximately 2,331 kilometers northwest of Perth.
Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield is continuing more focused sweeps with the towed pinger locator, and the AP-3C Orion aircraft will continue their acoustic search, working in conjunction with Ocean Shield. The British oceanographic ship HMS Echo is also working in the area with Ocean Shield.
"This work continues in an effort to narrow the underwater search area for when the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is deployed. There have been no confirmed acoustic detections over the past 24 hours," the JACC said.
The JACC also confirmed that aircraft and ships reported spotting a number of objects during yesterday's search, but none of the recovered items were confirmed to be related to MH370.
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