Underwater drone to investigate sonar contacts in MH370 hunt

A ship involved with the deep-sea sonar search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is being fitted with equipment to examine several sonar contacts of interest on the remote seabed west of Australia.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said on Wednesday that none of the sonar contacts exhibit the characteristics of a typical aircraft debris field. But some of the contacts do exhibit man-made properties and therefore must be investigated before they can be eliminated as having come from the plane.

Officials have previously said that more than 20 sonar contacts require closer examination by an underwater drone.

The transport bureau is heading up the search for the Boeing 777 in a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean off Australia's west coast.