Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will be briefed on search efforts for the Malaysia Airlines plane wreck during a tour of Perth's RAAF Pearce air base.

Mr Najib will thank crews involved in the recovery operations at the base, which is the departure point for the eight-nation search effort in the southern Indian Ocean.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Defence Minister David Johnston are expected to accompany him.

Mr Najib will also visit the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, which is co-ordinating the search under the leadership of retired air marshal Angus Houston.

The Malaysian government has come under fire for its handling of the disaster.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 people aboard while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The Joint Agency Coordination Centre said eight planes and nine ships would be searching for the plane wreck on Thursday in an area of 223,000 square kilometres, 1680 kilometres west-northwest of Perth.

A military plane will be dropping self-locating datum marker buoys within the search zone.

The first plane left Perth at 6am (WST).

The weather forecast is fair with visibility of about 10 kilometres, but the southern area may experience some isolated showers.