KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — The arduous underwater search for MH370’s remains will be delayed for at least four days to allow repairs on a malfunctioning part on the Bluefin-21 submersible and a broken transponder aboard its Australian mother ship, a US Navy official said.

According to a CNN report, the Bluefin-21 and a navigation transponder were damaged when the submersible was being loaded onto the deck of Australia’s Ocean Shield.

Citing the US Navy’s deputy director of ocean engineering, the CNN report said the submersible struck the transponder when it was being hoisted on board, damaging it in the process.

Although repairs were made to the submersible, tests showed the acoustic communications link on the autonomous water vehicle and the ship’s navigation transponder were still malfunctioning.

Dean reportedly said that there are no spare parts for either device on the ship and it has to return to a port for full repair.

“Either way, the ship has to get closer to shore,” he was quoted saying, before adding that the necessary parts for the repairs are being shipped in from the United Kingdom to Australia.

At best, it could take up to four or five days before the item reaches its destination.

So far, the US Navy’s Bluefin-21 has conducted a total of 18 missions under the surface of the southern Indian Ocean, where MH370 is still believed to have gone down.

The aircraft carrying 239 people went missing more than two months ago after leaving Malaysian shores, resulting in the largest international search mission the world has seen in the history of aviation disasters.

Satellite and radar data have indicated that the jetliner went down in the wild waters of the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away from the plane’s original flight path to Beijing.

Searchers scoured the ocean surface weeks in hopes of discovering debris from the Boeing 777 jetliner but shortly after the aircraft’s black boxes were deemed completely out of batteries, the mission went underwater.

According to CNN, the Bluefin-21 was hit by a slew of problems this week since it returned to the search site after it was refuelled.

Dean was quoted saying that operators first had troubles communicating with the underwater vehicle and had to retrieve it. This was when it struck the transponder.

“We haven’t been in the water for two days,” Dean was quoted saying, in reference to the submersible. “We’ve already lost two days. We have another few days to get parts. So it can add up to seven pretty quick.”