Indian scientist claims to have located the debris of MH370

New Delhi: Claiming a breakthrough in the search of the missing Malaysian aircraft, an Indian scientist is reported to have located the debris of the MH370. The Coimbatore based scientist Jeyaprabhu claims to have located the debris about 1400 kilometres north of the search area in the Indian Ocean.

It has been more than 68 days since the ill fate airplane disappeared with all 227 passengers on-board.

Meanwhile, a Chinese navy ship will start mapping the Indian Ocean seabed this week under the "new phase" in the hunt for the crashed plane, even as the damaged mini-submarine searching for the plane reached an Australian port for repairs, officials said on Monday.

Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities met over the weekend in Fremantle, Western Australia, to discuss the bathymetric survey and agreed on the deployment of ship Zhu Kezhen for the purpose.

"It was agreed that the Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen will conduct the bathymetric survey of the areas provided by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Zhu Kezhen is scheduled to sail for the survey area on Wednesday, weather permitting," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said.

Bathymetric survey, involving an extensive mapping of the seabed, is one of the main priorities given in the search for the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines plane which is now in its transition phase that prioritised ocean floor search.

Other priorities include re-analysing the data to verify a more accurate search area as well as identifying and deploying relevant towed and autonomous underwater vehicles required for the terrain.

The Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese nationals - had mysteriously vanished on March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8.

Malaysia believes the Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200 plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board and that satellite data indicates it crashed in the Indian Ocean. Australia has been leading the hunt for the plane which is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean but despite a massive air and sea search, including underwater using a US navy submersible, no sign of any wreckage has yet been found.

(With additional information from PTI)