DHAKA: A submarine scanning the ocean floor for signs of a missing Malaysian airliner is two-thirds of the way through its search but has yet to find the plane, officials say.

The Bluefin-21 submarine was to embark on its ninth search mission on Monday.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing in March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying 239 people.

On Monday another Malaysia Airlines flight was forced to land after one of its tyres burst on take-off.

Up to 10 military aircraft and 11 ships were to take part in Monday`s search for MH370, Australia`s Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said in a statement,

JACC said that the Bluefin submarine was searching a circular area with a 10km (six miles) radius where underwater signals were detected earlier this month.

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

So far the submarine had scanned two-thirds of the area with "no contacts of interest", JACC said.

It is operating at a depth of more than 4,000m (13,000 feet).

Planes and ships will continue to scan the ocean for visible debris in an area spanning almost 50,000 sq km (20,000 sq miles), Jacc said.

Authorities warned that weather conditions in the search area were deteriorating as tropical cyclone Jack approached.

Source: BBC
BDST: 1410 HRS, APR 21, 2014