Malaysia MH370: No trace yet after two-thirds of sub's scan

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. 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.