Nick Perry, Associated Press | April 6, 2014 | Last Updated: Apr 6 11:38 AM ET
AP Photo/CCTV via AP VideoIn this image taken from video, a member of a Chinese search team uses an instrument to detect electronic pulses while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, on board the patrol vessel Haixun 01, in the search area in the southern Indian Ocean, Saturday, April 5, 2014.
Three separate but fleeting sounds from deep in the Indian Ocean offered new hope Sunday in the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, as officials rushed to determine whether they were signals from the plane’s black boxes before their beacons fall silent.
The head of the multinational search being conducted off Australia’s west coast confirmed that a Chinese ship had picked up electronic pulsing signals twice in a small patch of the search zone, once on Friday and again on Saturday.
On Sunday, an Australian ship carrying sophisticated deep-sea sound equipment picked up a third signal in a different part of the massive search area.
“This is an important and encouraging lead, but one which I urge you to treat carefully,” retired Australian Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search, told reporters in Perth.
Houston stressed that the signals had not been verified as being linked to Flight MH370, which was traveling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing when it disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board. Experts, meanwhile, expressed doubt that the equipment aboard the Chinese ship was capable of picking up signals from the black boxes.
“We have an acoustic event. The job now is to determine the significance of that event. It does not confirm or deny the presence of the aircraft locator on the bottom of the ocean,” Houston said, referring to each of the three transmissions.
There are lots of noises in the ocean
“We are dealing with very deep water, we are dealing with an environment where sometimes you can get false indications,” he said. “There are lots of noises in the ocean, and sometimes the acoustic equipment can rebound, echo if you like.”
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday that the patrol vessel Haixun 01 detected a “pulse signal” Friday in the southern Indian Ocean at 37.5 kilohertz – the same frequency emitted by the flight data recorders aboard the missing plane.
AP Photo/Xinhua, Huang ShuboThis Saturday, April 5, 2014 photo, shows a piece of a white floating object, inside a white circle which was added by the source, spotted by Chinese air force in the southern Indian Ocean. Retired Australian Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search, said China reported seeing white objects floating in the sea in the area.
Houston confirmed the report, and said the Haixun 01 detected a signal again on Saturday within 2 kilometres of the original signal, for 90 seconds. He said China also reported seeing white objects floating in the sea in the area.
The British navy ship HMS Echo, which is fitted with sophisticated sound-locating equipment, is moving to the area where the signals were picked up and will probably get there early Monday, Houston said.
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