ATSB Chief Commisioner Martin Dolan said images published by the Daily Mail overnight were several months old and were classified ‘Category Three’ — or highly unlikely to be associated with an aircraft debris field.
“The underwater search so far has identified more than 400 seabed features that have been classified as category three,” Mr Dolan said. “It’s all been eliminated.”
He said there were no plans to return to those sites for a “closer look” in November when conditions improved.
Only two items had been classified as category one — or likely to be associated with an aircraft debris field — and they had been ruled out after further investigation found they were part of an uncharted shipwreck.
Fugro Discovery arrived back at the search site yesterday to resume work scouring the ocean floor.
So far just over half the 120,000 square kilometre priority search zone has been scanned — or an area the size of Tasmania.
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