An unmanned submarine has been forced to cut short its first search mission looking for debris from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said the Bluefin-21 sub was deployed last night from Australian vessel Ocean Shield on a mission that lasted six hours.
The search ended sooner than expected when it exceeded its depth limit of 4,500 metres and an inbuilt safety feature brought it back to the surface, the JACC said in a statement.
"The six hours of data gathered by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is currently being extracted and analysed," the centre said.
Authorities say it takes two hours for Bluefin-21 to reach the ocean floor.
Bluefin-21 will be redeployed later today and up to 11 aircraft and 11 ships will also take part in a visual search for signs of MH370.
What is the Bluefin-21?
Yesterday, search coordinator Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said no acoustic trace of the plane's black box had been detected for six days.
"We haven't had a single detection in six days. So I guess it's time to go underwater," he said.
The black box, which refers to two orange boxes that record flight data and cockpit chatter, may provide answers about what happened to the plane.
The sub was launched after authorities gave up hope of relocating underwater signals from MH370's flight recorders.
The recorders are powered by batteries to send out a pulse, but the batteries were expected to have expired last week.
Ocean Shield yesterday ceased searching for the signals using its towed pinger locator.
The flight MH370 vanished off radar screens on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including six Australians.
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said the Bluefin-21 sub was deployed last night from Australian vessel Ocean Shield on a mission that lasted six hours.
The search ended sooner than expected when it exceeded its depth limit of 4,500 metres and an inbuilt safety feature brought it back to the surface, the JACC said in a statement.
"The six hours of data gathered by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is currently being extracted and analysed," the centre said.
Authorities say it takes two hours for Bluefin-21 to reach the ocean floor.
Bluefin-21 will be redeployed later today and up to 11 aircraft and 11 ships will also take part in a visual search for signs of MH370.
What is the Bluefin-21?
- An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) designed for deep-sea surveying.
- It has a "swappable payload". It will first use sonar in the search and will be refitted with cameras if something is detected.
- It's 5m long and weighs 750kg. Has an endurance of 25 hours underwater at a speed of 3 knots, with a top speed of 4 knots.
- It has a depth rating of 4,500m, meaning it will be at its limit in the Indian Ocean search zone.
- Bluefin Robotics says its AUV can also be used for archaeology, oceanography, mine countermeasures, and unexploded ordnance.
Yesterday, search coordinator Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said no acoustic trace of the plane's black box had been detected for six days.
"We haven't had a single detection in six days. So I guess it's time to go underwater," he said.
The black box, which refers to two orange boxes that record flight data and cockpit chatter, may provide answers about what happened to the plane.
The sub was launched after authorities gave up hope of relocating underwater signals from MH370's flight recorders.
The recorders are powered by batteries to send out a pulse, but the batteries were expected to have expired last week.
Ocean Shield yesterday ceased searching for the signals using its towed pinger locator.
The flight MH370 vanished off radar screens on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including six Australians.