U.S. 7th Fleet is sending a second P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft to Perth, Australia, to help in the search efforts for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, U. S. Navy said on Thursday.

The P-8 will fly from Okinawa, Japan, to Perth on Friday to join an international coalition of search aircraft being coordinated by the Australian Defense Force, the statement said.

"It's critical to continue searching for debris so we can reverse-forecast the wind, current and sea state since March 8th to recreate the position where MH370 possibly went into the water. We've got to get this initial position right prior to deploying the Towed Pinger Locator since the MH370's black box has a limited battery life and we can't afford to lose time searching in the wrong area," said Tom Moneymaker, U.S. 7th Fleet oceanographer.

U.S. Pacific Fleet has moved a Towed Pinger Locator hydrophone and Bluefin-21 Side-scan sonar into Perth to preposition equipment and trained personnel closer to the search area.

The P-3 Orion patrol aircraft, which has been previously searching in the northern Indian Ocean search area, will return to previously assigned 7th Fleet missions, the statement added.

On Thursday, air crew searching for signs of flight MH307 had to cut short another fruitless day scouring the southern Indian Ocean due to bad weather. Six military aircraft from four countries and five civil aircraft have been scheduled to join the search on Thursday along with four Chinese ships and one Australian vessel.

Malaysia said on Monday that evidence showed the flight MH370, which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, had "ended" in the southern Indian Ocean. The plane was carrying 12 crew and 227 passengers, including 154 Chinese.

A multinational search for the wreckage has since continued, with recent satellite photos from France showing 122 unidentified objects in the search area.

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