However, buoyed by the hope that they are closing in, the size of the search area was reduced today, focusing on 77,580 square kilometres area in the Indian Ocean about 2,270 kilometres northwest of Perth.
This is about a third of the size of the previous search zone.
Houston said the towed pinger was still trying to re-locate the signals and will do so for “several days”.
On deploying an underwater vessel ‘Blue Fin 21', Houston said, “until we stop the pinger search we will not deploy the submersible.”
He said Ocean Shield required to be allowed to continue its work trying to find another signal.
“If we can get more transmissions we can get a better fix on the ocean floor which will enable a much more narrowly focused visual search for wreckage,” Houston said.
