Search for MH370 resumes after a full search mission by Blufin-21 overnight: JACC

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-4-17 10:22:35

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), Bluefin-21, is currently planning its next search mission after completing a full mission overnight, and 12 aircraft and 11 ships will assist in Thursday's search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370,, the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) said on Thursday.

Overnight Bluefin-21 completed a full mission in the search area and is currently planning for its next mission. "Bluefin-21 has searched approximately 90 square kilometers to date and the data from its latest mission is being analyzed," the JACC confirmed.

The Bluefin-21 was deployed again on Tuesday night from Ocean Shield and was forced to resurface on Wednesday morning to rectify a technical issue and then to be redeployed to continue the underwater mission yesterday.

While on deck yesterday, Bluefin-21's data was downloaded. And the JACC confirmed later Wednesday that the initial analysis of the data downloaded on Wednesday indicates no significant detections.

The JACC also confirmed the oil sample collected by Ocean Shield has now arrived in Perth and will be subject to detailed testing and analysis. "We will provide details of the results when they become available," the JACC said.

In addition, 10 military aircraft,2 civil aircraft and 11 ships will join in today's search mission, and the weather forecast for today is reasonable with isolated showers and south easterly winds.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totaling approximately 40,349 square kilometers today. The center of the search areas lies approximately 2,170 kilometers north west of Perth.

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