PERTH: The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), codenamed Bluefin-21 continues with its seventh mission in the underwater search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean, yesterday.
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), which is overseeing the search operation, said the unmanned-vehicle had searched approximately 133 square kilometres to date, since it was dispatched on its maiden mission Monday.
“The Bluefin-21 AUV completed mission six overnight in the underwater search area and the data collected is currently under analysis,” the agency said in a statement yesterday.
No contacts of interest have yet to be found.
The Bluefin-21, was deployed underwater in the hope of locating any debris from the missing plane, since no further confirmed signals have been picked up by the towed pinger locator since April 8.
It uses acoustic sounds to create a 3D map of the sea floor and takes a minimum of 24 hours to complete each mission, including four hours to download collected data.
For yesterday’s mission, the agency said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority had planned a visual search area covering approximately 50,200 sq km across three areas. — Bernama