A Chinese vessel mapping the ocean floor in efforts to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has returned to port on Saturday due to a technical glitch.

Officials said that the Chinese vessel was on its way to conduct a massive Indian Ocean search for the missing plane which disappeared on March 8 with 239 passengers on board. So far, the efforts showed no positive signs of locating the giant Boeing 777.

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The survey ship Zhu Kezhen was performing a bathymetric survey of the ocean floor to help experts determine what to do next in search of the missing plane on the unmapped parts of the ocean seabed.

The Joint Agency Coordination Centre in Australia said that survey ship Zhu Kezhen experienced a technical defect affecting its multi-beam echo sounder. The survey vessel needed to return to port to have the affected parts repaired.

The search for the missing flight MH370 has continually caused frustration after no debris from the plane has been found. Last week, Australia ruled out the possible area where the plane could have crashed and finally rested. This was after dives were repeatedly conducted in that area on the seabed but has returned negative.

Meanwhile, officials said that the plane could have diverted its route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and possibly ended up in the wide Indian Ocean. Officials also added that few leads from satellite signals between satellite, ground station and aircraft were traced.

With the latest development on the last known area where the MH370 could possible rest, experts are now re-analyzing the satellite data they have to confirm the next search area along with mapping the ocean floor to prepare for the next deep sea search.

The deep sea search has been expected to start in August and would take up to a year. JACC said that a survey vessel from Australia has been commercially contracted to conduct the bathymetric survey. The vessel will reach the search are in June.

Australia has been leading the search for the missing flight MH370 in consultation with Malaysia and China, whose nationals comprised around two thirds of the entire passengers of the flight.

TagsZhu Kezhen, mh370, Malaysia, Australia