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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Missing MH370: First underwater search finds nothing

The first underwater search for MH370 has come up fruitless.

Analysts did not identify any objects of interest after looking at the data retrieved from the underwater vehicle deployed on Monday in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Bluefin-21 was deployed from Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield on Monday night to begin scouring the bottom of the Indian Ocean search zone, off the coast of Western Australia.

The vehicle returned to the surface earlier than expected, after six hours on the sea floor, because it had reached its maximum operational depth of 4.5 kilometres.

The data has been analysed and "no objects of interest were found", according to an update from the US military.

The statement said that "to account for inconsistencies with the sea floor, the search profile is being adjusted to extend the sonar search for as long as possible".

The underwater vehicle is expected to redeploy later on Tuesday when weather conditions permit.

It was sent down on Monday to look for the plane after authorities called an end to the search for more black box signals, amid fears the batteries in the black boxes had died.

Brisbanetimes

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