CRI听力:MH370 Search Most Challenging Ever: Australian Search Expert

An Australian search expert says the hunt for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight is the most challenging ever. So far, no trace of the plane has been found.

CRI's Tu Yun has more.

Reporter: Australian maritime authorities say the search for flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean has ended for Tuesday with no significant developments.

Ten military aircraft and nine ships from seven countries have examined the search zone.

Chief of the newly established Joint Agency Coordination Center, ex-Australian defense chief Angus Houston, says the task to find the wreckage of the missing flight is the most challenging one he has ever seen.

"This could drag on for a long time. But I think at this stage, it's very important to pursue the leads - I'll call them leads - the evidence that is being presented to us. I think they give us a starting point. It's not the usual sort of starting point that we have, but we have a starting point and we need to pursue the search with vigor and we should continue to do that for some time to come."

Houston says the crucial job now is to find the debris of the missing plane and use advanced equipment to locate the black box.

The coordination center is also supposed to provide a single contact point for families and oversee communication with international agencies involved in the search.

Late in the day it had been reported that two Chinese ships retrieved a beacon. It is said the beacon may have been dropped by an aircraft involved in the search mission but further confirmation is needed.

Earlier in the day, Chinese authorities ordered a Chinese naval fleet heading for anti-piracy escort duty off Somalia to join the search.

The fleet, which is equipped with helicopters, has reached waters south of Australia's Christmas Island.

An Australian warship carrying a US device that detects signals from the plane's flight recorders has already left Perth for the search zone.

A British Royal Navy submarine has also arrived in the area to help with the search.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian government has released the full transcript of communications between the flight and ground controllers.

The authorities say the record reveals nothing abnormal.

The release comes after it was revealed that the last message received from the plane was "Goodnight Malaysian three-seven-zero", not the more casual "All right, good night" as had previously been reported.

Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says the transcript has been shared with the families of the passengers and crew members aboard the plane.

He says a closed-door briefing for the families will be held later today.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak is also expected to arrive in Perth today to see the massive search first hand.

Steve Wang, one of the relatives of the missing, says many questions have yet to be answered.

"They haven't yet promised that they will be able to give us a convincing explanation everything, or even the issues with the satellite maps and the doubts we have related to technological issues. We have various other doubts, like why did they come jump to the conclusion they did about the fate of the flight so early? So we think that we might pay a little more care and attention to the news conference tomorrow."

154 of the passengers aboard the missing plane are Chinese.

The search is now in its fourth week.

For CRI, I'm Tu Yun.