The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane was stepped up on April 2 with the British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless joining the search for the first time.

HMS Echo, another British Royal Navy ship, is also due to join the hunt on April 4.

A total of 10 planes and nine ships searched a 221,000 sq.km. swathe of the southern Indian Ocean west of Perth , Australia , on April 2 to find a trace of the vanished flight MH370.

April 2 is the 26 th day since the plane went missing. Meanwhile, the battery of the black box, which records the flight’s data and dialogue in the cockpit, is said to last for 30 days.

The jetliner disappeared on early March 8 while carrying 239 people, including 154 Chinese passengers, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing-VNA