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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Australian Ship Picks Up Signals Consistent With 'Black Box' Pings
Wall Street Journal ^ | 04/07/2014 | By ROBB M. STEWART in Melbourne and RACHEL PANNETT in Sydney

Posted on 04/07/2014 7:20:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The Australian navy picked up extended underwater signals in the search zone for Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU +2.44% Flight 370, in what authorities said Monday was the best lead yet in the hunt for the missing jet's "black box" flight recorders.

The naval ship Ocean Shield—fitted with U.S. Navy black-box detector equipment able to pick up signals far beneath the ocean surface—has been searching an area of the southern Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia for nearly two days. Investigators believe the area is the most likely spot where the plane may have run out of fuel, more than a thousad miles from the nearest airport, after disappearing from civilian radar on March 8.

The first of the signals late at night on Saturday local time was held for more than two hours, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is leading the multinational search, said Monday. On a return trip along the same path early Sunday, two distinct "pinger" signals were detected and held for about 13 minutes.

"Significantly this would be consistent with transmission from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder," Air Chief Marshal Houston said. "Clearly this is a most promising lead and probably in the search so far. The audible signal sounds to me just like an emergency locator beacon."

The potential breakthrough comes despite the failure so far of a multinational team of military aircraft to spot any debris related to Flight 370 on the surface of the ocean in more than two weeks. Instead, investigators have relied on radar, satellite communications and other data to plot where they believe plane likely went down.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: australia; blackbox; china; flightrecorder; malaysia; malaysiaairlines; mh370; oceanshield; unitedkingdom
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1 posted on 04/07/2014 7:20:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
The potential breakthrough comes despite the failure so far

Wow, they pay folks to write this drivel?

Don't all "breakthroughs" come in the midst of failures?

Anyway, the batteries on the FDR are close to dead, hope they find it soon.

2 posted on 04/07/2014 7:26:26 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Izzy Dunne

They seem to have found it, already.

They still have to narrow down the search to the actual plane, but I watched the news conference last night and I believe they’re now actually hearing the plane.

Just my opinion however. Could be wrong.


3 posted on 04/07/2014 7:30:13 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2013)
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To: Izzy Dunne

I think the batteries in the reporter’s brains have far exceeded their shelf life or ability to transmit anything meaningful.

So sad for the families they will never know.


4 posted on 04/07/2014 7:32:16 AM PDT by Jaded (Really? Seriously?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Oh good, we’re back to the daily “best lead yet” stories. I knew there was something missing from my life last week.

The beat-the-clock/find-the-ping plot device is a nice new wrinkle. Very creative storytelling.


5 posted on 04/07/2014 7:32:30 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard (If you don't stand up, you don't stand a chance.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m not a rocket scientist but it seems to me that they should place a transponder in these black boxes... you put the transponder on a low voltage standby until it receives the challenge pulses then it “wakes up” and it can begin a full power transmit of its response...


6 posted on 04/07/2014 7:35:57 AM PDT by missnry (The truth will set you free ... and drive liberals crazy!)
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To: SeekAndFind

<> Investigators believe the area is the most likely spot where the plane may have run out of fuel<>

Not according to this:

https://www.facebook.com/178566888854999/photos/pcb.740971779281171/740971732614509/?type=1&theater

It would mean that the plane flew a shorter distance, at a slower speed, and was probably scuttled closer to land with fuel still in the tank.


7 posted on 04/07/2014 7:37:03 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: SeekAndFind

If all this was done on purpose - wouldn’t they have yanked out the black box and voice recorder and dumped them somehow somewhere where the plane isn’t?

Can a plane like that dump something overboard with no regard to passengers?


8 posted on 04/07/2014 7:37:40 AM PDT by Principled (Obama: Unblemished by success.)
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To: SeekAndFind

BS; this is just cover for them to create the scenario that the batteries expired and we can BE ASSURED that it is in the Indian Ocean. Why should we doubt the Chinese?


9 posted on 04/07/2014 7:41:06 AM PDT by CincyRichieRich (A government of the people and by the people...)
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: Cringing Negativism Network

I was listening to the news this morning and I believe the Australians have identified the pinger on two scanning runs. They’re hoping for a third contact to triangulate more accurately but I think they’ve got it narrowed down to a three square mile area. Still a lot of territory to search to locate the recorders but better than before.


11 posted on 04/07/2014 7:43:00 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: SeekAndFind

Do the Chinese people find the word “Ping” racist? Just checking.


12 posted on 04/07/2014 7:45:29 AM PDT by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: CincyRichieRich
Why should we doubt the Chinese?

Maybe because it's the Australians who made the contact?

13 posted on 04/07/2014 7:47:36 AM PDT by Lower Deck
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: DoodleDawg

One thing I have not heard (anyone) talk about thusfar, in the entire month since the crash, assuming the plane for sake of this discussion actually crashed, is there is an otherwise ignored ship, well-equipped to find sonar sources:

Submarines.

Just saying. Submarines. Lots of countries have lots of submarines, and it would seem to me some are in that area.

Granted the submarines in that area are likely strategic (from several countries) so nobody is going to divulge what they’ve heard where, at least directly.

But I bet they’ve heard more that they’re releasing thus far. I believe they’ve found the plane.


15 posted on 04/07/2014 7:51:18 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2013)
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t think I will believe anything until they have video of part of the hull being hoisted out of the water.

This is so far so wrong so often, I’ll have doubt when they show us the black box. I’ve quit following it for now.


16 posted on 04/07/2014 7:51:58 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (My whimsical litany of satyric prose and avarice pontification of wisdom demonstrates my concinnity.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The Australian navy picked up extended underwater signals in the search zone......

I am glad it is the Australians.
I don't trust the Chinese claiming to have picked up the signal many thousands of feet away, while allegedly using a hand held device, according to the manufacturer, good for 600 feet,
Also the Chinese went rogue and were not in the designated search area.

If the Chinese actually did pick up a signal it was probably from a more sophisticated device on the main ship, and they were using the hand held hydrophone as a decoy to prevent giving away their more sophisticated equipment.

These alleged Chinese and Australian pings are hundreds of miles apart. -Tom

17 posted on 04/07/2014 7:54:45 AM PDT by Capt. Tom (Don't confuse U.S. citizens and Americans. They are not necessarily the same. -tom)
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To: BlueStateRightist

RE: Do the Chinese people find the word “Ping” racist? Just checking.

I don’t think they will ( and believe me, I speak the language having lived and worked in Taiwan for sometimes ).

Chinese is a “tonal” language where the meaning of a word depends on the tone you put in it.

So “ping” could mean different things in Mandarin ( depending on the tone ).

It could mean “spell”, “balance”, “vase”, etc.

So, how could you put a racist connotation to it?


18 posted on 04/07/2014 7:56:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (uestion)
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To: Jaded

FDR use non-volatile memory (I think modern ones use flash RAM) that do not lose their data when the power goes off. So as long as they can recover the FDR, they should be able to extract the data off of it.


19 posted on 04/07/2014 8:00:04 AM PDT by Scutter
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
Just my opinion however.

Sounds like you're very close to COMPLETELY discounting the "black hole" theory...

20 posted on 04/07/2014 8:01:17 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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