- Hopes of finding the wreckage of MH370 diminished further
- After descending to maximum safety depth of 4.5km it had to be brought back up
- It was recovered just six hours into the operation for exceeding maximum depth
Hopes of finding the wreckage of MH370 at the bottom of the Indian Ocean - if it is in fact there - diminished today after a setback with the sophisticated underwater search vessel.
It descended to its maximum safety depth of 4.5km without coming in range of the Ocean bed and had to be brought back to the surface in a major blow to the search organisers.
Bluefin-21 had been lowered into the sea, some 2000km north west of Perth from the Australian high tech vessel Ocean Shield last night, all hopes pinning on it after pings that might have been from the aircraft's black boxes had stopped.
An AP-3C Orion returns to RAAF Base Pearce after a day of searching an area in the Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
'Encouraging': A total of four signals, matching those of a black box flight recorder, have now been detected by the Australian ship Ocean Shield in the search for flight MH370
The autonomous underwater vehicle was due to scour the Ocean floor for 16 hours - but it was brought back up after just six hours because it had reached and then exceeded its maximum operational depth of 4.5km.
Any lower and the water pressure could have caused major damage to the mini submarine.
'Its built-in safety feature returned it to the surface,' the joint search committee said in a statement.
But the team added that data the vehicle had collected in its aborted mission would still be analysed in case it had picked up useful clues.
The yellow sub had been due to search an area of 40 square kilometers on its first mission using sonar to 'paint' a 3D image of its surroundings.
Experts had estimated that Bluefin-21 would have taken two hours to reach the Ocean bed before scouring the area for 16 hours.
But the sheer depth of the Ocean defeated the sophisticated machine.
It will, however, be sent back to work again later on Tuesday if weather conditions permit.
More signals: A handout image released by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) shows the search area in the Indian Ocean, West of Australia, where 15 planes and 14 ships are scouring a 75,423 square km area of ocean for the wreckage of flight MH370 more than a month after it disappeared
Retired Air Chief Marshal and head of the Australia agency coordinating the search for MH370, Angus Houston, addresses the media
A map from AMSA shows where pinger contacts have been recorded in the search for flight MH370
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