SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—An underwater vehicle searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 has found a shipwreck off the coast of Western Australia in the Indian Ocean. The images taken by the automated underwater vehicle reveal an anchor, a box-shaped object, and black rocks that may be coal scattered across the seabed. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau told The Sydney Morning Herald that the wreck is uncharted. “It’s a fascinating find but it’s not what we’re looking for,” spokesperson Peter Foley said. The information will be passed on to marine archaeologists for further research. To read in-depth about underwater archaeology see "History's 10 Greatest Wrecks."
Search for Missing Plane Spots Unknown Shipwreck
News May 13, 2015
Recommended Articles
Letter from Australia November/December 2022
Murder Islands
The doomed voyage of a seventeenth-century merchant ship ended in mutiny and mayhem
Features May 1, 2011
The Sinking of the HMAS Sydney
The loss of the HMAS Sydney (II), pride of the Australian navy, has long been a source of pain and bewilderment. In waters off Western Australia in late 1941, following a successful tour in the Mediterranean, the Sydney encountered a ship claiming to be a Dutch freighter—actually the HSK Kormoran, a German raider that had menaced merchant ships for months.
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Nineteenth-Century Booze Cruise
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2024
Shackleton's Last Try
-
Features March/April 2015
The Vikings in Ireland
A surprising discovery in Dublin challenges long-held ideas about when the Scandinavian raiders arrived on the Emerald Isle
-
Letter From the Marshall Islands March/April 2015
Defuzing the Past
Unexploded ordnance from WWII is a risk for the people of the Marshall Islands—and a challenge for archaeologists
-
Artifacts March/April 2015
Antler Chess Pieces
(Courtesy Andy Chapman/MOLA Northampton) -
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2015
Seismic Shift
(Courtesy Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)