Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P3 Orion aircraft have been heavily involved in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The aircraft have been tasked with searching for objects in a revised search zone 1,800 kilometres from the West Australian coast. ABC reporter Jade MacMillan describes what it is like on board an Orion.

Stepping on board an RAAF P3 Orion in the early hours of the morning at the Pearce airbase, the aircraft's crew seems very hopeful of a breakthrough.

The 16-member team has already been out five times as part of the MH370 search operation, but now the search zone has been moved closer to the West Australian coast, allowing more time for flying over the area itself.

Favourable weather conditions have been forecast and there is a real sense of anticipation as we leave Pearce, north of Perth, and start the journey west.

It takes about three hours to reach the search area, at which time everyone pulls on life vests as the plane descends to between 500 and 800 feet (152 and 244 metres) above the water.

The conditions are reasonably good, although areas of low cloud hamper visibility and the choppy water makes the white caps difficult to distinguish from possible debris.

In the middle of the aircraft, crew members operate radar and sensor systems. While the technology is state of the art, the success of the operation will come down to visual sightings through the aircraft's windows.

Crew members take shifts manning the windows throughout the search period - it is exhausting work trying to stay focussed on a large expanse of ocean that seems endless.

Their eyes are peeled for anything that could be related to the missing plane; anything bright, solid or out of place in the seas below.

Up front, a team of pilots, navigators and engineers keep the aircraft, and the operation, on track.

The search zone has been divided into sections and the P3 Orion has been asked to take a zigzag flight path involving four legs of 644 km each, tracking east to west.

No debris findings, but not a waste of time

After four hours, the search has not turned up anything of interest. The crew is visibly disappointed but Flight Lieutenant Russell Adams insists it has not been a waste of time.

"Every day we don't find something in one area, it provides more information as part of the whole operation to refine that search," he said.

Flight Lieutenant Russell Adams is part of the team searching for any signs of the missing jet. ( ABC: Marcus Alborn )

"We're relatively confident that if there had been anything out there today on the tracks that we were searching we would have found it.

"So the guys will be able to rejig their search calculations, maybe change the track spacing for tomorrow if the weather's better or worse, or move the search area around to where objects are being sighted."

The crew has not had any use for the flares that are sent down to mark where debris has been spotted, but two GPS buoys used to track ocean drift have been deployed.

"Essentially, by dropping them it sends a satellite signal with its position at certain timings which tells us which way the current's flowing and which way the potential debris could be tracking towards," says the aircraft's Tactical Coordinator, Flying Officer Imray Cooray.

"We essentially sanitised an area, so we looked through our zone and we could say that we had nothing picked up on radar or visually."

Long hours a challenge

The 10-hour return flights take their toll on the crew members involved in the operation.

Some of them try to get some rest on the way out to the search area before becoming completely focused while over the search zone.

Flying Officer Brittany Sharpe is a navigator and the only female crew member.

"We've been flying for 10 days now and the hours get quite long," she says.

"Everyone works really well together; at the end of the day we're all one crew, we all have our own jobs, and my opinion is that gender doesn't really matter as long as you're a good team."

The crew might not have had much success so far, but Flight Lt Adams says they are already looking ahead to the next stage of their mission.

"We'll head back home, get some sleep tonight and come out again tomorrow," he says.

"Hopefully we'll have a bit more luck then."