The Boeing 777-200ER is registered in Malaysia and owned by Malaysia Airlines and, according to the ICAO, the country of origin of the aircraft is obliged to launch an investigation and secure the wreckage, The Star reported Sunday.
However, Malaysia has asked Australia to lead as the search zone is concentrated around the Southern Indian Ocean.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority narrowed down the overall search area Saturday to 41,393 square km located about 2,331 km northwest of Perth from Friday's search area of 46,713.
The signals are fast fading and the search crews are frantically trying to detect more pings from the blackbox in the narrowed search area in the coming days.
"Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Ocean Shield continues more focused sweeps with the Towed Pinger Locator to try and locate further signals related to the aircraft's black boxes," JACC stated.
