Australian ship detects new signals; search area reduced
MISSING MH370 Ocean Shield picks signals on two occasions, raising hopes
PERTH: Two fresh signals have been picked up in the search for missing Malaysian flight MH370, raising hopes on Wednesday that wreckage will be found within days even as black box batteries start to expire.
Australian ship Ocean Shield detected the signals on Tuesday to match a pair of transmissions picked up over the weekend that have been analysed as consistent with signals from the plane’s flight data recorder, the head of the search said.
“Ocean Shield has been able to reacquire the signals on two more occasions, late on Tuesday afternoon and later last night,” said Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre. The Australian ship has now picked up four transmissions, crucial information as searchers try to pinpoint the crash zone for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.
Officials had feared that the signals which were initially picked up might not be detected again, particularly since the batteries on the black box tracking beacons have a normal lifespan of about 30 days.
The new transmissions, found in the same broad area as the previous two, lasted for five minutes and 32 seconds and about seven minutes respectively, Houston said. “Yesterday’s signals will assist in better defining a reduced and much more manageable search area on the ocean floor,” Houston said.
“I believe we are searching in the right area but we need to visually identify the aircraft before we can confirm with certainty that this is the final resting place of MH370.” Houston, however, again urged caution for the sake of the families of those aboard the flight which mysteriously vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and said the search for more signals would go on.
“Hopefully, with lots of transmissions we’ll have a tight, small area and... in a matter of days we’ll be able to find something on the bottom that might confirm that this is the last resting place of MH370,” Houston told reporters. Britain’s baby Prince George hosted his first ever official function on Wednesday — maintaining a regal calm on a play date with a group of New Zealand toddlers, even as some of the others burst into tears. The eightmonth old, whose parents Prince William and Kate began a tour of New Zealand on Monday, met 10 local babies at Wellington’s Government House at a play session organised by non-profit childcare group Plunket. George looked comfortable in the spotlight as his mother gently rocked him in her arms and chatted to his playmates’ parents. AFP