DHAKA: The undersea search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is to be extended beyond the small area identified as its most likely resting place as the quest for any sign of the missing plane enters its 50th day on Saturday.

The US submarine drone Bluefin 21 has so far searched about 95 percent of a 10-sq-km area of the Indian Ocean seabed, pinpointed after the detection of acoustic pings believed to be from the plane`s black box flight recorders.

Bluefin 21 had to abort the search on Friday and resurface due to a software malfunction. Technicians fixed the drone overnight and its 14th, 16-hour trip to the sea floor at depths of more than 4.5 km was underway on Saturday.

‘If no contacts of interest are made, Bluefin-21 will continue to examine the areas adjacent to the 10km radius,’ Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) in charge of the search said in a statement, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1335 HRS, APR 26, 2014