MH370 - Defective drone delays search

The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane has been delayed after the discovery of a technical issue with the underwater drone used in the hunt. The communications equipment on the Bluefin-21, on loan from the US, has a "defect", Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said. 

It is now awaiting spare parts from the UK before it can continue its search in the southern Indian Ocean. Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

There were 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on board. Using satellite data, officials have concluded that MH370 ended its journey in waters north-west of the Australian city of Perth.

However the ongoing multinational search for the missing plane - shaping up to be the most expensive in aviation history - has yet to yield any concrete findings.

The robotic submarine Bluefin-21, operated off the Australian vessel Ocean Shield, is an autonomous underwater vehicle that can identify objects by creating a sonar map of the sea floor.

It had only restarted its mission in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean following maintenance. Its initial search of the area where acoustic signals thought to be from flight recorders were heard found nothing.

"Examination of the communications problem has established that a hardware defect exists in the transponder mounted on the Ocean Shield and that a defect may also exist in the transponder mounted on the Bluefin-21," JACC said.

"This inhibits the ability of the two devices to communicate with each other," the statement added. Spare parts from the UK and are due to arrive on Sunday, the agency said. The issue was discovered on Wednesday.

The Ocean Shield is now on its way to Dampier, Western Australia - a journey that is expected to take a few days - to receive the parts and await repairs, it added. Meanwhile, Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammudin Hussein said that the air and surface search for the missing plane would be suspended.

"The search operation has entered a transition phase, prioritising deep sea search. In this context the air and surface search has been suspended," he said in Kuala Lumpur. He added that an Australian P3 Orion aircraft and naval ships from Australia, Malaysia and China would remain on standby in Perth.

Source: http://www.bbc.com