Posted on 04/05/2014 8:16:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A Chinese ship searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 detected a "pulse signal" in the southern Indian Ocean on Saturday, but there was no evidence yet that it was linked to the missing plane, state media said.
The signal picked up by the vessel's black box detector had a frequency of 37.5kHz, the official Xinhua news agency said -- identical to the beacon signal emitted by flight recorders.
The announcement came nearly a month after the Malaysian jetliner disappeared off radar screens en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, triggering an unprecedented international search.
Australian and British vessels are currently involved in a round-the-clock underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean, hoping to pick up a signal from the plane's black box recorder, but the battery powering those emissions is nearing the end of its roughly 30-day life span.
The Chinese search ship Haixun 01 picked up the pulse signal at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, Xinhua said in a brief dispatch.
"Suspected pulse signal picked up by Haixun 01 has not been identified yet," the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said on a verified microblog.
Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said he had not received a report on the signal and warned that it may not be from the plane.
"This is not the first time we have had something that has turned out to be very disappointing," he told ABC television.
"I'm just going to wait for (JACC chief) Angus (Houston) and the team and my team to come forward with something that's positive because this is a very very difficult task."
Up to 10 military planes, three civilian jets and 11 ships are currently involved in the protracted search for the Boeing 777, but have so far failed to find any sign of the plane.
Authorities still have no idea how or why the plane vanished, and warn that unless the black box is found, the mystery may never be solved.
Earlier in Kuala Lumpur, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia would, in line with international agreements, appoint an independent "investigator in charge" to lead an international team to probe what happened to MH370.
The team will include Australia, China, the United States, Britain and France.
Hishammuddin again declined to provide any detail from Malaysia's ongoing investigation, however, saying he remained focused on finding the plane and its black box.
"In spite of (the long odds), our determination remains undiminished," he told a press briefing.
Australia is leading the hunt for the plane, which concentrated on Saturday on about 217,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean some 1,700 kilometres northwest of Perth.
Malaysian authorities believe satellite readings indicate MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean, far off Australia's western coastline, after veering dramatically off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
But no proof has been found that would indicate a crash site, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described the oceanic search as "the most difficult in human history".
The JACC said Australia's Transport Safety Bureau was continuing "to refine the area where the aircraft entered the water" using further analysis of satellite data and aircraft performance.
Several nations that normally do not work together -- notably the United States and China -- have rallied to help look for clues in one of the world's greatest-ever aviation mysteries.
Authorities still have no idea how or why the plane vanished, and warn that unless the black box is found, the mystery may never be solved.
The Ocean Shield, which is carrying a US Navy "black box" detector, and HMS Echo, which has a similar capability, are searching a 240-kilometre track of ocean in hopes of detecting sonic pings from the recorder.
However, progress is painstaking as vessels must move slowly to improve readings, and officials have acknowledged there is no solid evidence the plane went down in that stretch of sea.
"The search using sub-surface equipment needs to be methodical and carefully executed in order to effectively detect the faint signal of the pinger," Commodore Peter Leavy said.
Are you sure? I just got my grandson one of these games for his birthday. You don't think he is going to like it?
You do have to wonder if one or more of our subs isn’t involved in the search.
Ah, I get the joke.
You are “pinging” us repeatedly!
Chess is a good game....
We have admitted that one sub is.
Faulty translation.
They found a stowaway named Ping.
They heard a voice say, WI TU LOO.
Makes sense, they are equipped with appropriate technology, can move swiftly and are quiet.
As someone else said, surely the submarines detected when it hit
Is this the tingle up Mathews leg or the real deal!
Do Chinese navy ships have day rooms on board, or for that matter, USA ships? I’m an old Army vet. We had ping pong tables in our day rooms.
” Underground ocean found on moon of Saturn. Search for MH370 to start there Monday” CNN
And WHY would we have had a sub within 1000 miles of this area?
A plane that size hitting the surface of the ocean could have the impact of a detonation of, let’s say, 5,000 lbs of dynamite. The shock wave should have been detected. Surface ships, subs, listening devices.. something should have heard the crash. Information from several devices should allow for a triangulation of at least a general area. To give a sort of junior example, most cities now have microphones listening for gunshots. If a shot goes off, the data from several listening posts is used to triangulate a location and the cops are there right away. Yes, the ocean is bigger but sound travels through water immense distances.
well maybe we didn’t and maybe we did, but maybe Australia did, ya think?
Well, at the time there was (Chinese?) detection of some seismic event close to the “turning” point. That was dismissed. As for the open ocean, that is thousands of mi away from land and possibly many miles to any craft that would have any such capability or desire to use it. One also does not know just how much impact the craft actually would have - it could be slow and make a rather nice acute angle into the water, with less catastrophic impact than a headlong rush or somersault into it. That changes momentum and impact. (And bear in mind that aircraft are built to be light as possible.)
What happened with Air France? It was in the open Atlantic. Don’t recall if anyone talked about getting signals about shock or any such. And the Atlantic is narrower and probably more traveled by ships and US subs, especially where it was.
NOBODY patrols waters in which no threat or tactical advantage is perceived.
And this theoretical location isn’t exactly on any transit route either.
OK, get a load of this weirdness!
The coordinates given, 25 S - 110 E, are almost directly in the center of the “Exmouth Triangle”, the Souther Hemisphere analog to the Bermuda Triangle.
To get exact coordinates of the Exmouth Triangle - take the coordinates for the Bermuda Triangle, then substitute North for South to get the latitudes, then subtract from 180 degrees to change West to East in the longitudes.
See here (along with a downloadable KMZ file of the Exmouth coordinates that you can view on Google Earth): https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gec-fun-games/DMptmHbqrHU
While the Air France planes remains were difficult to locate and retrieve, I don’t think there was any doubt about it having entered the water. Perhaps some of FR’s nautical and audio experts could chime in here..
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