MH370 search vessel finds 19th century shipwreck

One of the vessels in search of the missing Malaysian Airline MH370 off the coast of Western Australia has found a shipwreck dated back to probably the turn of the 19th century, the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) for the search of MH370 said in its weekly report on Wednesday.

"On Dec. 19, 2015, an anomalous sonar contact was identified in the course of the underwater search, with analysis suggesting the object was likely to be man-made, probably a shipwreck," JACC said in its update report.

"Havila Harmony was tasked with further examination of the contact using the AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle). On Jan. 2, 2016, the AUV captured high-resolution sonar imagery of the contact, confirming that it was indeed the wreck of a ship."

Havila Harmony is one of the three vessels currently searching the missing plane in the designated area thousands of kilometers away from the coast of Perth, Western Australia.

The Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum has conducted a preliminary review of some sonar imagery and advised that the vessel is likely to be a steel or iron vessel dating from the turn of the 19th Century.

So far, more than 80,000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been searched.

Under the agreement of Australia, Malaysia and China in April last year, 120,000 square kilometres will be thoroughly searched. It is anticipated this will be completed around the middle of the year.

"In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area," JACC said. Endit