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Hishammuddin Hussein

PERTH, Australia — As the search continued off the coast of Australia for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet on Monday, the airline announced another plane bound for India was forced to make an emergency landing after one of its tyres burst on takeoff.Meanwhile, a robotic submarine continued scouring a desolate patch of silt-covered seafloor in the Indian Ocean for any trace of the missing plane. The unmanned sub has spent nearly a week searching for the plane’s black boxes and has covered about two-thirds of its focused search area. But it has yet to uncover any clues that could shed light on the plane’s mysterious disappearance.

The US Navy’s Bluefin 21 has made eight trips below the surface to scan the seabed far off the coast of western Australia, journeying beyond its recommended depth of four-and-a- half kilometres.

Its search area forms a 10km (6-mile) radius around the location of an underwater signal that was believed to have come from the aircraft’s black boxes. The search coordination centre said the sonar scan of the seafloor in that area was expected to be completed sometime this week.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has stressed the importance of the weekend’s submarine missions, but added that even if no debris was recovered, the scope of the search may be broadened or other assets may be used.

The search for debris on the ocean surface also continued Monday, with up to 10 military aircraft and 11 ships combing a 49,500 square kilometre (19,000 square mile) area, about 1,700 kilometres (1,000 miles) northwest of Perth, the search coordination centre said.

A cyclone was swirling over the ocean northwest of the search area, and was expected to bring increasing rain and winds to the northern section of the search zone later Monday.- AFP.