Drone data being probed for Malaysia plane

The unmanned submarine tasked with finding the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has reportedly returned to the surface only hours after it was deployed.

The Bluefin-21 was launched from Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield off the Western Australian coast last night but turned back six hours into its first 16 hour mission, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The drone had reportedly reached its maximum depth of 4.5km, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a statement on Tuesday.

"After completing around six hours of its mission, Bluefin-21 exceeded its operating depth limit of 4500 metres and its built-in safety feature returned it to the surface,” JACC stated.

"The six hours of data gathered by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is currently being extracted and analysed."

The drone will be redeployed later today pending good weather.

Eleven civil and military aircraft and 11 ships will be deployed on day 39 of the search for the missing plane.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Author: Martin Zavan, Approving editor: Jack Hawke