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U.S. Navy assisting search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's black box

The U.S. Navy loaded black box detector equipment and a submersible onto the Australian defense vessel Ocean Shield Sunday to aid in the search and recovery of Malaysia Airline Flight 370's black box. Ocean Shield departed Perth Monday, and is expected to reach the search area within several days.

By JC Finley

The Australian defense vessel Ocean Shield -- outfitted with a black box detector and autonomous underwater vehicle -- was deployed Monday to assist the search and recovery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's black box.

The U.S. Navy loaded the equipment onto the Australian vessel although U.S. Navy Cmdr. William Marks told CNN's "State of the Union" that the equipment can only be deployed in a narrower search area.

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"We have to be careful not to send it in the wrong place. But we also wanted to get it out there as close as we can to what we believe is the right place," Marks said.

The Ocean Shield will take three days to reach the search zone, giving Marks' team only days to locate the black box before the locator beacon's batteries, designed to last 30 days, are expected to run out. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been missing for 23 days.

When deployed, the locator equipment will be towed behind the ship so that it can scan for pings from the locator beacon.

Monday's search concluded with "nothing significant to report," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority announced via Twitter.

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[CNN]

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