The state-run Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that a black box detector on board the Haixu 01 picked up a signal at a frequency of 37.5kHz, but Australia warned there was no evidence yet it was linked to the plane.
Australian authorities are leading the multinational search and its Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said the signal “are consistent with the aircraft black box” but stressed that no link to MH370 had been confirmed.
In a statement by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), he said, a number of white objects were also sighted on the surface about 90 kilometres from the detection area.
Australia has asked China for more information, he added, and was considering deploying search assets to the area.
“The deployment of RAAF assets to the area where the Chinese ship detected the sounds is being considered,” he said, referring to the Royal Australian Air Force.
According to experts, the hand-held, ping-locating technology used by the Chinese ship operates at a maximum depth of 600 feet, compared to the towed pinger on an Australian search vessel that goes up to 20,000 feet deep and away from surface noise.
Xinhua said the detector deployed by the Haixun 01 picked up the signal around 25 degrees latitude and 101 degrees east longitude.
A meteorologist attached to CNN International, Judson Jones, said that puts it about 1,640 kilometres west-north of Perth, Australia, between current and previous search zones, and about 354 kilometres south of the closest of the three a areas searched Saturday.
Up to 10 military planes, 2 civil planes and 13 ships will assist in Sunday's search for missing aircraft.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has three separate search areas planned for today about 2,000 kilometres north west of Perth, which total approximately 216,000 square kilometres.
Weather in the search area is expected to be good with a cloud base of 2,500 feet and visibility greater than 10 kilometres.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau continues to refine the area where the aircraft entered the water based on continuing ground-breaking and multi-disciplinary technical analysis of satellite communication and aircraft performance, passed from the international air crash investigative team comprising analysts from Malaysia, the United States, the UK, China and Australia.
