Amid fears that batteries of the crashed Malaysian plane's black boxes may have died, authorities today began to narrow the search area in the Indian Ocean to deploy an underwater drone to spot the debris.

Searchers hunting for Flight MH370 have so far failed to find any confirmed clues about the black boxes, as no new signals have been detected since last of the four other signals were heard on April 8.

"Up to 11 military aircraft, one civil aircraft and 14 ships will assist in today's search," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a statement, adding the centre of the search areas was set approximately 2,200 km north west of Perth.

China is also planning to deploy its indigenous deep sea manned submersible to locate the wreckage of the Boeing 777. This work continues in an effort to narrow the underwater search area for when the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is deployed, JACC said as the search for the missing jet entered into 37th day.