Australian officials are "confident" that detected underwater sounds discovered in their search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight are from the plane's black box, Voice of America reported.
On Friday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in Shanghai that investigators have been able to minimize the area of the Indian Ocean that they're searching.
"We are confident that we know the position of the black box flight recorder to within some kilometers. But confidence in the approximate position of the black box is not the same as recovering wreckage from almost four and a half kilometers beneath the sea or finally determining all that happened on the flight," Abbott said.
Abbott reportedly briefed Chinese President Xi Jinping on search updates as well, VOA said. Around two-thirds of the plane's passengers were Chinese.
An Australian ship using a U.S. naval device located pings consistent with a flight data recorder. However, time is limited as the batteries in the black box will run out in 30 days.
On March 8, the Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were 239 passengers on board.
Though Malaysian officials have said they believe the flight was intentionally diverted and crashed into sea, the lack of wreckage and evidence makes many weary of what truly happened.
If more pings are picked up, authorities can use a robot submarine to search the ocean floor, according to VOA. If the black box is retrieved, officials will be able to determine what officially caused the plane's disappearance.
