Confirmation of debris location critical: Australian search operation commander

The critical step to search the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at this moment is to confirm the place of debris, Australian search operation commander Peter Leavy said on Sunday.

After the confirmation, the U.S. towed pinger locator and an underwater drone can hunt for the black box, he said.

"Our primary focus at the moment is to use the aircraft to identify the wreckage. Ships move in to pick up the wreckage from the water, then confirm or deny whether they are from the missing aircraft or not," Leavy told reporters here.

"We will use the information to track the most likely impact point of the missing aircraft, and can then deploy the appropriate equipments and detect that black box," he said.

According to the commodore, the Australian navy support ship Ocean Shield will be equipped with the U.S. device and set out to search for the black box of MH370.