Authorities searching for the missing flight MH370 have discovered a 19th century shipwreck at the bottom of the southern Indian Ocean.
The steel or iron vessel was discovered after sonar scanning identified an object resting on the ocean floor on December 19.
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) today released an image of the shipwreck in its first update of 2016 into the search effort for MH370.
"Havila Harmony was tasked with further examination of the contact using the AUV," the update said. "On 2 January 2016, the AUV captured high-resolution sonar imagery of the contact, confirming that it was indeed the wreck of a ship."
"The Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum has conducted a preliminary review of some sonar imagery and advised that the vessel is likely to be a steel/iron vessel dating from the turn of the 19th Century."
The 120,000 square kilometre search area, expected to be completed by the middle of this year, will not be expanded if no credible information as to the location of the aircraft is uncovered.
