Unmanned sub used in search
Plane’s black box said to be no longer emitting signals
SYDNEY — An unmanned submarine has been deployed to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane after authorities concluded that a black-box beacon was no longer emitting signals.
The submarine will survey the ocean floor to try to provide the first sighting of the Boeing 777 since it disappeared on March 8. It could take weeks or months to complete its search.
No further “pings” have been heard from what was thought to be the black-box beacon since last Tuesday, leading authorities to assess that its batteries, which last about 30 days, have probably run out of life.
Searchers have also spotted an oil slick in the area where the “pings” were heard, about 2,000 kilometres northwest of Perth, in southwestern Australia, and have taken a sample of about two litres for testing.
Angus Houston, a retired Australian air chief marshal who is co-ordinating the search, said the Bluefin-21 submarine would look initially in an area of about 40 square kilometres, but the total area that may need to be investigated spanned 1,295 square kilometres.
The submarine takes about two hours to reach its depth of about 4,500 metres and will spend 16 hours underwater before rising. But it can only report when it surfaces, so will effectively provide a daily snapshot of the ocean floor.
Scanning the area could take from six weeks to two months.
The deployment of the submarine follows the detection of four sets of signals believed to be from the black-box beacon. Two sets of signals were heard on March 5 and two further sets on March 7; all were detected by a beacon locator being towed by Australia’s Ocean Shield vessel.
Houston said it would take “a number of days” to take the oil sample ashore and test it.
Despite a continuing search by ships and planes, the authorities do not believe any floating wreckage will be found from Flight 370, which was en route f rom Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board when it disappeared.
Eleven military aircraft, one civilian jet and 15 ships are searching an area spanning about 46,620 square kilometres.
The Royal Navy survey ship HMS Echo is in the area using its own sensors to listen for the black-box “pings” and has covered 15,540 square kilometres of ocean in the past two weeks.