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The US Navy has described as "speculative" claims that underwater pings thought linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane were probably not coming from the jet, the BBC reported.

Michael Dean, the US Navy's deputy director of ocean engineering, told CNN the acoustic signals probably came from some other man-made source.

But the US Navy subsequently called Mr Dean's comments "premature.”

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Using satellite data, officials have concluded that the airliner, which had 239 people on board, ended its journey in the Indian Ocean, north-west of the Australian city of Perth.

Four pings that officials believed could be from the missing plane's "black box" flight recorders were heard by search teams using specialist equipment. These pings have defined the area for the sea-floor search that is continuing.

"Our best theory at this point is that [the pings were] likely some sound produced by the ship... or within the electronics of the Towed Pinger Locator," Mr Dean said.

He was referring to the pinger locator used by search teams to listen for underwater signals.

"Always your fear any time you put electronic equipment in the water is that if any water gets in and grounds or shorts something out, that you could start producing sound," Mr Dean said.