“The AUV captured high-resolution sonar imagery of the contact, confirming that it was indeed the wreck of a ship”.
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The scientists had been searching for missing Malaysia flight MH370 off the west coast of Australia when they made the underwater discovery.
Images captured by the Havila Harmony – the vessel being used in the search – show the large metal object resting on the bottom of the ocean.
Some of the shipwreck’s shinier debris initially piqued searchers’ interest as possibly being pieces of MH370.
Scientists have discovered what they believe is an ancient shipwreck – dating back to the turn of the 19th century.
“It appears it is collapsing in classic iron ship fashion with the bow and stern triangles upright and intact, and side plating collapsing out to starboard”, he said.
MH370’s discovery might become just a footnote on whatever sort of page such things are written in 2115, for generations more concerned perhaps with a lost space ship or the fate of an odyssey to the dark hydrocarbon seas of Saturn’s giant moon Titan.
It is the second wreck found during the hunt.
A third ship, the Fugro Equator, continues to conduct search operations.
-the Fugro Equator, which is expected to return to Fremantle in early February for supplies.
More than 80,000 square kilometres have been searched to date, and it is believed the search will wind down by the middle of 2016 if nothing else has been found.
On March 8, 2014, Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) vanished from radar. There were 239 people on board.
In July previous year, a two-metre-long (almost seven-foot) flaperon wing part washed up on a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and was confirmed to be from the ill-fated flight, marking the first concrete evidence that it met a tragic end.
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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau announced revealed hopes of a breakthrough were raised when a sonar search discovered a man-made object on the seabed.
