PERTH: An Australian vessel leading the hunt for missing Malaysian jet MH370 will deploy a mini-sub “as soon as possible”, the head of the search said Monday.
“Ocean Shield will cease searching with the towed pinger locator later today and deploy the autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin-21 as soon as possible,” said Angus Houston, who fronts the Joint Agency Coordination Centre.
An oil slick has been detected in the Indian Ocean within the search area for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 but has yet to be analysed, the Australian leading the operation said Monday.
“I can report that (Australian ship) Ocean Shield detected an oil slick yesterday evening in her current search area,” Angus Houston said.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, triggering a multinational search that is now focused on the Indian Ocean.
Searchers are confident they know the approximate position of wreckage of the Boeing 777, some 1,550 km (963 miles) northwest of Perth, after picking up several acoustic signals they believe are from its black box recorders.
With the batteries on the locators now two weeks past their 30-day expected life, the focus may soon shift to trying to find wreckage using sonar and cameras on a small unmanned “robot” known as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV).
Australia’s Ocean Shield, towing a sophisticated U.S. Navy “towed pinger locator”, and Britain’s HMS Echo are still criss-crossing the zone where four signals or pings were picked up, but the last was almost a week ago.
-Agencies
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