PERTH, April 17 — The sample of an oil slick detected on Sunday by the Australian defence vessel Ocean Shield in the southern Indian Ocean, where a search is going on for a missing Malaysian airliner, has been brought here for
analysis.
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), which is overseeing the search operation for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that entered its 41st day Thursday, said the results of the analysis would be announced once they were available.
On Monday, JACC chief coordinator Air Chief Marshal (Rtd) Angus Houston told a press conference that the oil slick was detected about 5,500m within the vicinity of ‘pings’ previously detected by the towed pinger locator used by the Ocean Shield.
Two litres of the oil slick were collected as the sample. In a statement, JACC said the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) called Bluefin-21 had, until Thursday morning, searched about 90 sq km and data from its latest mission was being analysed.
“Overnight, Bluefin-21 AUV completed a full mission in the search area and is currently planning for its next mission,” the statement said.
Data collected from its two previous missions had found nothing so far.
Bluefin-21, a probe equipped with side-scan sonar that uses acoustic sounds to create a 3D map of the sea floor, has been deployed in the hope of locating any debris of the missing plane.
It was dispatched on its maiden mission from the Ocean Shield to a 40 sq km area to continue the search for MH370 underwater, as no further confirmed signals were picked up by the towed pinger locator since April 8.
The statement said up to 10 military aircraft, two civil aircraft and 11 ships would be involved in Thursday’s search operation.
-Bernama
