Another dead end for MH370 search as tests show oil slick was not from plane

Investigators who analysed samples of an oil slick in the hunt for the missing Malaysian airliner say that it did not come from the plane.

The search co-ordination centre said the oil tested in the western Australian city of Perth came up negative for aircraft oil or hydraulic fluid. The oil was collected earlier this week from a slick about 5.5 kilometres from the area where equipment picked up underwater sounds consistent with an aircraft black box.

It had been hoped that the oil would be evidence that officials are looking in the right place for flight 370, which vanished March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board. Searchers have yet to find any physical proof that the sounds that led them to the ocean floor were from the ill-fated jet.

The centre has begun analysing data collected by a robotic submarine that completed its first successful scan of the seabed yesterday.

The unmanned sub's first two missions were cut short by technical problems and deep water, but the Bluefin 21 finally managed to complete a full 16-hour scan of the silt-covered seabed far off Australia's west coast.