Canberra: Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Ocean Shield has arrived at Geraldton, Western Australia, to receive spare parts related to the transponder mounted on it and the transponder mounted on the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Bluefin 21, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said in a statement Monday.
The ADV Ocean Shield and the Bluefin-21 have been deployed for the ongoing search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.
The repairs are necessary to correct a hardware issue affecting the ability of the transponders to communicate with each other during a dive, JACC said.
The problem became apparent during Bluefin 21's mission last week.
"Ocean Shield was originally going to Dampier to await the transponder parts, however, it was determined that the parts could be delivered to the ship more quickly via the port of Geraldton," the JACC stated.
"The spare parts are expected to arrive in Geraldton later today."
