- published: 12 Apr 2014
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Signals in remote seas thought to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are "rapidly fading" and finding the jet will be a "massive, massive task", Australia's PM says. Tony Abbott said he was confident "pings" detected by search teams were from the aircraft's black boxes. But no new signals have been confirmed in the search area since Tuesday. "No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Mr Abbott warned. Correspondents say Mr Abbott appeared to be couching his comments from Friday, in which he said he was "very confident" that signals heard by an Australian search ship were from the missing Boeing 777. Speaking during a visit to China, Australia's leader said teams were hoping to track further signals in a section of the southern Indian Ocean before shifting the search operation to the seabed. "Trying to locate anything 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) beneath the surface of the ocean, about a 1,000km (620 miles) from land is a massive, massive task," he said. "Given that the signal from the black box is rapidly fading, what we are now doing is trying to get as many detections as we can so that we can narrow the search area down to as small an area as possible." Mr Abbott said a submersible drone would be sent to conduct a sonar search of the seabed once search teams were confident with the area identified - but he refused to say when that might be. After analysing satellite data, officials believe the plane with 239 people aboard flew off course for an unknown reason and went down in the southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Those leading the search fear that time is running out because the batteries that power the pings from the black box only last about a month, and that window has already passed. Two sounds heard a week ago by the Australian ship Ocean Shield, towing the ping locator, were determined to be consistent with the signals emitted from the black boxes. Two more pings were detected in the same general area on Tuesday. On Thursday an Australian aircraft picked up an audio signal in the same area as the four previous detections but officials now believe it is unlikely to be related to the black boxes The underwater search zone is currently a 1,300 sq km (500 miles) patch of the seabed, about the size of Los Angeles. The submersible drone, Bluefin 21, takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator and it would take about six weeks to two months for it to search the current zone. TAGS: abc breaking news, bbc, bbc football, bbc iplayer, bbc news, bbc news america, bbc persian, bbc sport, bbc weather, bbc world news, breaking celebrity news, breaking election news, breaking late news, breaking local news, breaking music news, breaking news, breaking news alerts, breaking news canada, breaking news headlines, breaking news in atlanta, breaking news in nigeria, breaking news india, breaking news pensacola florida, breaking news plane crash, breaking news story, breaking sports news, business expensive news home media world, christian world news, cnn, cnn breaking news, cnn money, cnn news, cnn news breaking news, cnn news world, detroit breaking news, global news, headline, headline news, health care technology news, hot latest global news, internet technology news, las vegas breaking news, latest breaking news, latest celebrity news, latest information technology news, latest music news, latest news, latest news headlines, latest news update, latest sports news, live breaking news, local breaking news, local news today, msn breaking news, nbc breaking news, nbc world news, news of the world, news report us world, news today news, news updated daily, solar technology news, sports news today, technology news, the latest news, today news, us news and world, us news and world report, us news and world report magazine, us news and world report web site, us news world report, world news, world news daily, world news headlines,Ukrainian,Ukraine Protest,Ukraine Crisis,Ukraine Ex-Leader,Malaysia Airline Latest News,Malaysia Airlines Searching,Malaysia Airline Searched,Malaysia Airlines Missing,Malaysia Airlines Crashes video,Malaysia Airline Footage,Malaysia Airline Crashed,Crashed,Malaysia Plane Crashed,Malaysia Plane Today News,Malaysia Plane Latest News,Plane News,Today Plane Breaking News,Today Malaysia Airline Latest News,Malaysia Airlines MH370,China In New Debris Clue,Satellite Images Of Malaysia Airlines,Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,Missing Malaysia Airlines,Malaysia Airport. Missing Malaysian Plane Announcement By Malaysian PM Families Told Missing Plane Lost Malaysia's prime minister announces Prime Minister: Flight 370 ended in Southern Indian Ocean Missing Malaysian Plane Flight MH370 Lost Malaysian Plane Lost M