Bluefin-21 commences Mission 16 in MH370 search

Bluefin-21 has completed mission 15 with no results and has commenced mission 16 on Monday morning, according to the latest statement of the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC).[Special coverage]

"No contacts of interest have been found to date," the Perth- based search coordination center said in the morning.

The JACC said the submarine drone Bluefin-21 will continue to examine the areas adjacent to the focused underwater search area during mission 16 on Monday.

According to weather forecast for the day, there will be a cold front moving out of the search area and being replaced by a southerly trade flow, sea swells of four to five meters.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totaling about 54,921 square kilometers for Monday. The center of the search area lies approximately 1,667 kilometers north-west of Perth.

According to the statement, up to 9 military aircraft and 12 ships will assist in Monday's search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.