Robotic submarine completes third mission to search for missing MH370

April 17, 2014 11:50 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:25 pm IST - Perth

Relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 watch a live broadcast of a press conference by Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the search off Australia's west coast at a room reserved for family members in Beijing, China, on Monday.

Relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 watch a live broadcast of a press conference by Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the search off Australia's west coast at a room reserved for family members in Beijing, China, on Monday.

A mini-submarine deployed to locate the missing Malaysian plane’s wreckage on the floor of the Indian Ocean has completed a full 16-hour mission mission at its third attempt, authorities said today.

Two previous missions by autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin 21, a US Navy probe equipped with side-scan sonar, to map the ocean floor were cut short by technical problems and deep water, without making any “significant” detections.

“Overnight Bluefin-21 AUV completed a full mission in the search area and is currently planning for its next mission,” according to Joint Agency Coordinating Centre (JACC) set up by the Australian government to coordinate the search operations.

It said Bluefin-21 has searched approximately 90 square kilometres to date and the data from its latest mission is being analyzed.

Bluefin 21 is searching in an area defined by four acoustic signals picked up by an Australian search team.

Today’s search operation would be carried out by up to 10 military aircraft, two civilian plane and 11 ships.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totaling approximately 40,349 square kilometres, as the multi-nation search entered into the 41st day.

The centre of the search areas lies approximately 2,170 kilometres north west of Perth.

The search for the missing plane could take up to two months as the robotic mini-submarine takes six times longer to cover the same area compared to the towed pinger locater, officials said.

“It is estimated that it will take the AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) anywhere from six weeks to two months to scan the entire search area,” Lt. J.G. Daniel S. Marciniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, had said in a statement.

JACC also said the oil sample collected by Australian defence vessel ‘Ocean Shield’ had now arrived in Perth and will be subject to detailed testing and analysis.

“We will provide details of the results when they become available,” JACC said.

The Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 — carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo—Canadian and 154 Chinese nationals — had mysteriously vanished on March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.

Finding the black box is crucial to know why the plane veered off from its route and vanished.

The mystery of the missing plane continued to baffle aviation and security authorities who have so far not succeeded in tracking the aircraft despite deploying hi-tech radar and other gadgets.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.