MH370: Search operation continues on ANZAC day

PERTH: The search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continued Friday despite the Australians commemorating the 99th Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) day.
ANZAC is a remembrance day which is held annually to honour soldiers who had served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said up to eight military aircraft and ten ships had been arranged to join the 49th day of operation in searching for the flight MH370.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority had planned a visual search area of about 49,240 square kilometre area with the centre located about 1,584 kms north west of Perth, it said in a statement on Friday.
"The weather forecast for today is for isolated showers, with south easterly winds up to 25 knots, sea swells of two to three metres and visibility of one kms in thunderstorms and three kms in rain," it added.
On the underwater search area which was now 95% completed, the agency said the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle(AUV), Bluefin-21 was currently completing its 13th mission.
Since its maiden mission on April 14, no contact of interest had been found to date, the agency said.
Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have arrived in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.
A multinational search was mounted for the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learnt that the plane had veered off course, in the southern Indian Ocean.
After an analysis of satellite data indicated that the plane's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak announced on March 24 that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean". – Bernama