The search for a Malaysia Airlines jetliner deep in the Indian Ocean was again cut short yesterday when technical problems forced a US Navy underwater drone to surface without finding anything, officials said.

While a massive air and sea search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 is continuing almost 2,000km off the coast of Perth, hopes have been pinned on the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle finding the first concrete sign of the plane in more than six weeks of hunting.

This is a good environment for looking for wreck debris, albeit deep

Malaysian authorities have still not ruled out mechanical problems as causing the Boeing 777’s disappearance, but say evidence suggests it was deliberately diverted from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

An aircraft’s black box records data from the cockpit and conversations among flight crew and may provide answers about what happened to the missing plane.

An unspecified technical problem meant the Bluefin resurfaced early yesterday and analysis of the sonar data downloaded showed no significant detections, the Australian agency leading the search said.

It has subsequently been relaunched to continue its search.

The drone was forced to end its first deployment early on Monday after it exceeded its 4.5km depth limit in the remote stretch of ocean where search authorities believe the jetliner crashed after its disappearance on March 8 with 239 people on board.

The introduction of the Bluefin marks a methodical, slower-paced new phase of the search, now in its 40th day and described by the search coordinator, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, as the most expensive in aviation history.

US Naval personnel have said the drone could take up to two months to scour a 600-square-kilometre area where the plane is believed to have sunk.

The deep sea area now being searched, the Zenith Plateau, has never been mapped in detail because it is not in any country’s economic zone. However, the sea floor is likely covered in ‘foraminiferal ooze’, a sludge formed by microscopic marine organisms, which would show up any large metallic object clearly.

“A sidescan is very good at detecting the difference in the acoustic return of a hard object versus a soft, muddy seafloor,” Houston said. “This is quite a good environment for looking for wreck debris, albeit deep.”

An air and sea search for floating debris continued yesterday, but Houston has indicated that it will soon end. Up to 11 military aircraft, three civil aircraft and 11 ships helped in yesterday’s search.

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