Bluefin-21 restarts search for missing MH370: JACC
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E-mail Xinhua, April 26, 2014
Early into its 13th mission of searching for the missing Malaysian jet on Friday, the U.S. Navy's Bluefin-21, a robotic submarine, was recovered due to a software issue that required resetting and now its mission 14 is underway, authorities said Saturday.
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Photo released by the Australian Defense Department on April 18, 2014 shows Phoenix International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis is craned over the side of Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. [Photo/Xinhua] |
![Photo released by the Australian Defense Department on April 18, 2014 shows Phoenix International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis is craned over the side of Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. [Photo/Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20140426/001fd04cf03a14c5622c53.jpg "Photo released by the Australian Defense Department on April 18, 2014 shows Phoenix International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis is craned over the side of Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. [Photo/Xinhua]")
"The AUV has technically sophisticated equipment and a reset is not uncommon. Overnight Phoenix technicians resolved the issue and mission 14 is now underway," the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) confirmed in its latest update.
To date, Bluefin-21 has completed approximately 95 percent of the focused underwater search area, but "no contacts of interest have been found to date," the JACC added.
Up to eight military aircraft and 11 ships will assist in Saturday's search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
According to weather forecast for Saturday, there will be isolated showers, with south easterly winds up to 20 knots, sea swells of two to 2.5 meters and visibility of 1 km in thunderstorms and 3 km in rain.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totaling approximately 57,311 square km Saturday. The center of the search area lies approximately 1,584 km north west of Perth.
