Flight MH370 Search Intensifies As Pings Detected By Chinese, Australian Vessels
After four weeks of searching for missing Flight MH370 Chinese and now Australian crews have reported detecting “pings” in separate areas of the southern Inidan Ocean near where the efforts to find the plane are focused.
As reported by The Inquisitr on Saturday, the Chinese ship Haixun 01 detected a signal in the same frequency as that of Flight MH370’s black boxes.
However, Chinese authorities are cautioning that they cannot confirm the “pings” actually belong to Flight MH37o, even though searchers also reported sightings of white objects floating in the vicinity and more ships were being sent to help in the search.
In separate developments, Australian vessel HMAS Ocean Shield — which carries US Navy equipment designed to pick up black boxes signals — also reported hearing acoustic signals from an area about 300 nautical miles away from where the Chinese ship says it intercepted the signals.
The search for Flight MH370’s black boxes is critical, as locating the instruments could explain why the missing Malaysia Airlines plane ended thousands of miles off its original final destination, Beijing.
In the report from Saturday, the Chinese said the Haixun 01 detected signals with a frequency of 37.5 kHz per second – the same as the one used by MH370 flight recorders – at about 25 degrees south and 101 degrees east, the Chinses agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.
Anish Patel, president of Dukane Seacom – the company that made the radar signals for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders on board MH370 – told CNN, the signals are “the specific frequency that these locator pingers operate on.”
He added the signal is a unique frequency and unlike other marine signals such as those of whales and other marine creatures.
This new information, added to radar data analysis has led authorities trying to locate Flight MH370 to focus their efforts in this narrower area of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Perth, Australia.
Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation said:
“The area of the highest probability is, what we think, the southern part where Haixun 01 is operating. That is why we are really interested in the two acoustic encounters that Haixun 01 has had.”
“We are treating each of them seriously. We need to ensure before we leave any of those areas that this does not have any connection with MH370.”
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing almost a month ago, March 8, when it lost communication with air traffic controllers while over the South China Sea. It carries 239 souls on board.
[Image via AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA / Shutterstock.com]
