Black Box Detector Joining Malaysia Jet Search

U.S. Navy Captain Mark Matthews right, Royal Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy commander of join task force 658, center, and Chief of the Navy Vice Admiral Ray Griggs speak at a press conference at naval base HMAS Stirling about the Defense ship Ocean Shield and her roll in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth, Australia, March 30, 2014.Rob Griffith—AP

dispatching a warship with a black box detector as part of the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority announcedSunday it’s dispatching a warship with an airplane black box detector to aid in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. That ship sets sail after objects fished out of the Indian Ocean Saturday were determined to be unrelated to the missing aircraft.

Australian black box detector ship Ocean Shield will take up to four days to reach the Flight 370 search zone. That zone is now 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) to the west of Australia, reports the Associated Press.

The Boeing 777′s black box, if located, could provide investigators with valuable insight into what caused the aircraft to veer far off course before vanishing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 238 people on board three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, objects retrieved from the Indian Ocean and initially suspected to be from the missing flight were determined to be “fishing equipment and other flotsam” unrelated to the flight, AMSA said.

Nine aircraft and eight ships combed the search area Sunday looking for debris or other clues. They were joined by a merchant ship keeping an eye out as it sailed through the area, marking the greatest number of vessels involved in the MH370 search to date.