MOSCOW, Jan 24 — No significant discoveries were made by the Singapore-flagged vessel Armada 86 05, operated by US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, during the latest phase of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, Sputnik/RIA Novosti reported, citing a progress report sent to family members.
“Overall, despite consistent deployment of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and significant cumulative survey coverage achieved during this period, there has been no significant discovery or conclusive finding identified from the search operations to date,” the document said.
The latest update, covering the period from January 6 to January 15, confirmed the vessel successfully mapped approximately 7,236.40 square kilometres (sq km), but the initial planned completion date of January 16 was exceeded, and the search was prolonged to January 24 to factor in “operational considerations and the need to maximise survey coverage,” the report said.
The Armada 86 05 and its three Hugin AUVs were deployed on the southern side of the 7th Arc, a curved geographical boundary calculated from final satellite communication pings between the aircraft and an Inmarsat satellite, with activities largely uninterrupted between January 6 and January 14.
Daily productivity varied due to operational tempo, technical factors and weather conditions, with the highest single-day coverage of 870.91 sq km recorded on January 14.
A brief technical fault required the early recovery of one AUV on January 7, but full three-AUV operations resumed thereafter.
The current deployment is part of a 55-day operational window authorised by Malaysia’s Transport Ministry on December 3, 2025.
In the early hours of March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines on flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, disappeared from radar screens.
It is believed that the plane crashed in the Southern Indian Ocean. However, the search operation was unable to determine the crash site. — Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti