Haixun 01 intensifies efforts to detect MH370 black box

Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 has intensified its effort to detect signals emitted from the black box of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 since Friday morning off the Australian western coast. [Special coverage]

On Friday, Haixun 01 arrived at the new search area to the north of the 1.15 million square-kilometer patch earlier designated by Australia, according to a Xinhua reporter aboard the Chinese search vessel.

A shipboard rescue boat carrying a black box detector searched the area from 9:20 a.m. Beijing time (1:20am GMT) until noon, with no significant findings. Haixun 01 also searched at dusk on Thursday.

The efforts to search the newly-designated area with black box detectors have been intensified as the batteries of the black box's locator beacons are expected to run out soon.

The task is made tremendously difficult with no definite water zone and an increased water depth as the vessel moved north, said Zhang Liang, the survey captain from the Shanghai Maritime Center of Surveying and Mapping who is travelling with the rescue team.

The water depth at Haixun 01's current location is about 5,000 meters, according to Zhang.

The newest key search zone announced by Australia is the area near 100 degrees east longitude and 20 degrees south latitude, according to Haixin 01's onsite headquarters.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has determined a search area of about 217,000 square kilometers, 1,700 kilometers north west of Perth.

Up to 10 military planes, four civil jets and nine ships are assisting in Friday's search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

(Updated at 16:30)