Australia says missing Malaysia Airlines jet not where pings heard

Australian search officials said on Thursday they had finished searching an area near where four acoustic signals thought to be related to a missing Malaysian jetliner had been picked up, and had now discounted it as the final resting place of the plane.

Authorities narrowed the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet last month after picking up a series of pings near the site where analysis of satellite data put the last location of the plane some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) off Australia's northwest.

"The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has advised that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections can now be considered complete and in its professional judgement, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370," the agency in charge of the search said in a statement.

Plans to continue searching in an expanded area with a specialist commercial operator were unchanged, it added.