PERTH, Australia — A robotic submarine has completed its first full 16-hour mission scanning the floor of the Indian Ocean for wreckage of the missing Malaysian airliner after two previous missions were cut short by technical problems and deep water, authorities said today.
The Bluefin 21 had covered 35 square miles of the silt-covered sea bed off the west Australian coast in its first three missions, the search coordination center said today. While data collected by the sub from its latest mission, which ended overnight, was still being analyzed, nothing of note had yet been discovered, the center said.
A total of 12 planes and 11 ships were to join what could be the final day of the surface ocean search for debris from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
Today’s search would cover a 15,600-square-mile patch of sea about 1,400 miles northwest of the Australian city of Perth, the center said.
When the sea bed search began this week, authorities announced the days of the fruitless surface search were numbered as the chances of success dwindled.
But a sample of an oil slick found this week about 3.4 miles from where underwater sounds that could be from an aircraft black box beacon were heard has been shipped to Perth for analysis, the center said.
The analysis could provide further evidence that the hunt for Flight 370 was headed in the right direction. Searchers have yet to find any tangible proof that the sounds that led them to the sea floor were from the ill-fated jet.
On Wednesday, Chinese relatives stormed out of a teleconference meeting in Beijing to protest the Malaysian government for not addressing them in person.
More than 100 relatives of Chinese passengers on the plane walked out of a teleconference meeting with senior Malaysian officials, an act of defiance over a lack of contact with that country’s government and for taking so long to respond to their demands.
The Boeing 777 vanished March 8 with 239 people on board while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing.
