At the request of the Malaysian Government, Australia has accepted responsibility for the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is leading the underwater search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. 
 
 Joint Agency Coordination Centre 
 
 MH370 Operational Search Update 
 
 11 January 2017 
 
 This operational report has been developed to provide regular updates on the progress of the search effort for MH370. Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow. Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible. 
 
 Key developments this week 
 
 Fugro Equator continues to conduct underwater search operations using the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) . In the past week the AUV has completed five missions. Operations have been delayed due to weather conditions impacting the recovery of the AUV after its underwater missions and required maintenance. 
 
 
 
 Search Status 
 
 At a meeting of Ministers from Malaysia, Australia and the People’s Republic of China held on 22 July 2016, it was agreed that should the aircraft not be located in the current search area, and in the absence of credible new evidence leading to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, the search would be suspended upon completion of the current search area. 
 
 Ministers have reiterated that this does not mean the termination of the search. Should credible new information emerge that can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given to determining next steps. 
 
 Fugro Equator is completing its final swing and gathering sonar data in areas that haven’t previously been completed. It is expected the search operations currently being undertaken by Fugro Equator may be completed in January 2017. 
 
 
 
 Click image to enlarge 
 
 Weather in the search area is not expected to affect AUV operations to any great extent over the next week. 
 
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 MH370 Operational Search Updates ||||| The towfish and 14,700 feet of cable broke free from the ship and are now resting on floor of the southern Indian Ocean. 
 
 “There were no injuries to crew and it is believed it will be possible to recover the towfish at a later date,” the JACC said in a statement. A spare towfish is being readied. 
 
 It was the first of two setbacks this week in the hunt for the missing Boeing 777, which disappeared in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. 
 
 In a separate operational update Wednesday, the JACC said another ship involved in the mission, the Havila Harmony, sustained damage when a fish net bent its underwater communications pole. 
 
 The vessel is being repaired in a dry dock at the BAE Systems facility in Henderson, near Perth, Australia, and is expected to set sail again Thursday to restart searches on Feb. 2, the JACC said. 
 
 Just over 70 percent of the internationally-agreed 46,000 square mile search zone has been covered so far in the hunt for the missing airliner — an area of ocean floor larger than the state of South Carolina. 
 
 The operation is due to be completed by the middle of this year. The JACC says that if no “credible new information” about the jet’s location emerges, the search will end. 
 
 The only piece of the plane found so far is a flaperon that that washed up July on the French island of Reunion, near Madagascar. 
 
 However, the sonar operation has turned up a 19th-century shipwreck. ||||| Story highlights A vehicle called a towfish strikes a 2,200-meter-high mud volcano, sinks to the ocean floor 
 
 The vessel towing it will return to Western Australia for a replacement cable, officials say 
 
 A search of the complete area is still expected to take until mid-2017, authorities say 
 
 (CNN) A sonar vehicle used in the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been lost after striking an underwater volcano in the southern Indian Ocean, according to search officials. 
 
 The vehicle -- called a towfish -- was being towed behind the Fugro Discovery, a specialist search vessel engaged in the hunt for the missing airliner, when it struck the 2,200-meter-high mud volcano Sunday, according to the Joint Agency Coordination Center, or JACC. 
 
 As a result, the towfish's cable broke, sending the vehicle and 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) of cable to the ocean floor. 
 
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 The JACC, an Australian government agency created to coordinate search efforts for MH370, said that no crew members were injured. 
 
 It was believed the towfish, which scans the ocean floor, could be recovered, the JACC said in a statement.
– A "towfish" sonar vehicle searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 didn't find the missing plane, but it did find a 7,400-foot-tall underwater volcano…when it crashed right into it on Sunday, NBC News reports. The towfish was being dragged by a search vessel and scanning the floor of the Indian Ocean when it hit the volcano. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, searchers plan to recover the million-dollar towfish, which is sitting under more than 8,500 feet of water, sometime in the future. The search vessel has a backup towfish but has to travel to Australia to replace the 2.8-mile cable it also lost in the accident, CNN reports. The trip will cause a 12-day delay in the search for the missing plane. Flight MH370 has been missing since March 2014, when it disappeared with 239 people onboard while traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, NBC reports. Searchers have covered about 70%—more than 32,000 square miles—of the search zone so far. If they haven't turned up any "credible new information" on the location of the missing plane by the time they complete the entire zone in mid-2016, they'll call the search off. In the meantime, the Joint Agency Coordination Center will be investigating to find out exactly how a giant underwater volcano (which the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has a 3D image of) snuck up on its towfish, according to the Morning Herald.