Et australs Orion-fly på vei til leteområdet for det forsvunne malaysiske flyet. Foto: AFP / NTB scanpix.
Flere signaler fanget opp i søket etter MH370
Flere signaler er blitt fanget opp i havområdene hvor fly og skip leter etter det malaysiske passasjerflyet som forsvant for snart én måned siden.
Angus Houston, som leder den australske leteoperasjonen, sa på en pressekonferanse søndag at skipet Haixun 01 hadde fanget opp signaler to ganger, og at dette kan være et godt spor.
Det første signalet ble fanget opp fredag, deretter ble et mer langvarig signal fanget opp dagen etter.
Et tredje signal er dessuten fanget opp i havområdene som letemannskapene nå undersøker om kan stamme fra samme kilde.
– Dette er et viktig og oppmuntrende spor, sier Houston.
Han advarer likevel mot overdreven optimisme. Det er fortsatt ikke fastslått hva signalene stammer fra, og leteområdet er samtidig svært stort.
Les også: Sonarsøk etter det forsvunnede Boeing 777-flyet
– De burde veldig snart være i stand til å verifisere det, sier han til nyhetsbyrået TT.
Fly og skip som leter etter det forsvunne malaysiske passasjerflyet, ble søndag omdirigert til området der et kinesisk skip fanget opp signalene.
Signalene på 37,5 kilohertz er sendt på samme frekvens som flyets ferdskriver og taleregistrator er satt opp til å sende på.
Men Houston understreket at det ennå ikke er fastslått at signalene kommer fra det savnede flyet
Det første signalet ble fanget opp fredag, deretter ble et mer langvarig signal fanget opp dagen etter.
Et tredje signal er dessuten fanget opp i havområdene som letemannskapene nå undersøker om kan stamme fra samme kilde.
– Dette er et viktig og oppmuntrende spor, sier Houston.
Han advarer likevel mot overdreven optimisme. Det er fortsatt ikke fastslått hva signalene stammer fra, og leteområdet er samtidig svært stort.
Les også: Sonarsøk etter det forsvunnede Boeing 777-flyet
– Bør snart ha svaret
Den svenske flysikkerhetseksperten Hans Kjäll sier han er overrasket over at det ennå ikke er fastslått om signalene stammer fra en svart boks eller ikke.– De burde veldig snart være i stand til å verifisere det, sier han til nyhetsbyrået TT.
Fly og skip som leter etter det forsvunne malaysiske passasjerflyet, ble søndag omdirigert til området der et kinesisk skip fanget opp signalene.
Signalene på 37,5 kilohertz er sendt på samme frekvens som flyets ferdskriver og taleregistrator er satt opp til å sende på.
Men Houston understreket at det ennå ikke er fastslått at signalene kommer fra det savnede flyet
Her kan du lese mer om måten kineserne går frem på i søket. Igjen er det referanse til mikro-sonarbøyer som jeg aldri har hørt om. Jeg lurer litt på hydrofonen kineserne bruker og hvordan de kan si at de har et 37,5KHz signal. Tipper at de hører mange lyder på en slik type hydrofon, men pingeren er lett å høre, den skiller seg veldig ut på grunn av sitt karakteristiske signal.
Fra CNN i morges:
What's the difference between the devices?
The most recent find came from a Chinese ship slowly moving through the southern Indian Ocean.
So what was it doing?
Video on Chinese state-run CCTV shot Saturday shows crew members from the Haixun 01 boarding a small yellow dinghy and using what appears to be a handheld hydrophone.
The three men on board lower the device into the water on a pole.
A CCTV correspondent aboard the Haixun 01 reported that a 37.5 kh signal was detected for 90 seconds.
CNN spoke to the U.S. company that makes such devices.
Handheld pinger locating devices were first built for scuba use, said Justin E. Manley, senior director of business operations for Teledyne Benthos.
The equipment starts at a list price of about $8,000; with all the options it costs about $16,000, according to the company.
Manley said holding the device over the side of a vessel may not be the best option, but it should work.
The handheld device used by Chinese is much different from the U.S. Navy hydrophone -- or underwater microphone -- called a towed pinger locator. One is on board the Australian ship Ocean Shield, which recently joined the search for Flight 370.
This high-tech listening device can glide along near the bottom of the sea. The towed pinger locator, or TPL, is 30 inches long and weighs just 70 pounds.
It's towed behind the ship that generally moves at slow speeds, generally from 1 to 5 knots.
The device can pick up the pinger sound in depths reaching 20,000 feet. A pinger can be detected at a range of 1 to 2 miles.
The TPL is more sensitive, more expensive and, since it is towed in the ocean, will have a better detection range, said Tom W. Altshuler, vice president and group general manager for Teledyne Marine Systems.
"One is designed to find a pinger in deep water, the other is designed to find a pinger in shallow water," said Altshuler.
What now?
Searchers need more equipment in the area where the pulse signal was detected to determine if it comes from airplane wreckage.
It is a race against time, because the batteries for the acoustic pingers on Flight 370 could run out soon. The y are expected to last at least a month once a plane goes down, but would then begin to lose strength. According to Malaysian officials, the batteries on the missing plane were due to be replaced in June under a regular maintenance schedule.
"I'd like to see some additional assets on site quickly -- maybe some sonobuoys," Patel said, referring to 5-inch-long (13-centimeter) sonar systems that are dropped from aircraft or ships.
Confirmation that the signal comes from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 would mean "the possibility of recovering the plane -- or at least the black boxes -- goes from being one in a million to almost certain," said Simon Boxall, a lecturer in ocean and earth science at the University of Southampton.
Up to 10 military planes and three civilian aircraft -- in addition to 11 ships -- searched Saturday for any sign of Flight 370, according to Australian officials. The British submarine HMS Tireless was in the search area, Malaysia's acting transport minister said.
Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the chief coordinator of the JACC, said officials were considering deploying search assets to the specific area where the Chinese ship detected the pulse signal.
Det er egentlig fælt å antyde det, men er opplysningen korrekt?
Kan det være viktig for kineserne å komme hjem med noe som kan tilfredsstille deres ledere? Uansett, tiden renner ut, og ingen vrakdeler er funnet til nå.
MH370: Plane search signal 'important lead'
Fra New Straits Times
Fra New Straits Times
A second pulse signal was detected less than 2 km (1.2 miles)
from the original
Australian co-ordinators in the
search for a missing Malaysian plane say a Chinese ship has detected a pulse
signal for a second time, within hours of it being heard earlier on
Saturday.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston called the discovery in the southern Indian
Ocean an "important and encouraging lead".He warned that the data were still unverified.
British naval ship HMS Echo is sailing to the area to investigate further.
It is expected to arrive in the early hours of Monday.
Australian aircraft were also on their way, Air Chief Marshal Houston told reporters. Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield would be heading to the latest search area once it had investigated a third acoustic detection elsewhere.
Both HMS Echo and ADV Ocean Shield have technology able to detect underwater signals emitted by data recorders.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board. Investigators believe it crashed in the Indian Ocean although no confirmed debris has been found. The battery-powered signal from the "black box" recorders fades after 30 days.
Caution urged After confirming details of the first pulse detected on Saturday which had "characteristics consistent with" an aircraft's flight recorder, Air Chief Marshal Houston told a news briefing at Pearce Air Base near Perth of a second signal.
"[Saturday] afternoon Perth time, there was another acoustic detection less than 2 km (1.2 miles) from the original."
The second signal lasted about 90 seconds, he said.
The signal detected by Haixun 01 reportedly had the
same frequency as those emitted by flight recorders
The search co-ordinator insisted the latest developments should be treated as
unverified "until such time as we can provide an unequivocal determination"."We are working in a very big ocean and within a very large search area, and so far since the aircraft went missing we have had very few leads which allow us to narrow the search area," he said.
Richard Westcott reports on the use of a pinger locator to find
a black box
A dozen military aircraft and 13 ships are already searching three areas about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) north-west of the Australian city of Perth.
They will cover some 216,000 sq km on Sunday.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott earlier said he was "hopeful but by no means certain" that the signal detected on Saturday was linked to missing flight MH370.
Haixun 01 picked up the first so-called "ping" signal at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The signal reportedly had a frequency of 37.5kHz - the same as that emitted by the flight recorders.
Three people on board the boat were said to have heard the pings, which were not recorded as they came suddenly.
Xinhua also reported that a Chinese military plane had spotted a number of white floating objects about 90km away a few hours earlier.
Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing four weeks ago.
Malaysia earlier announced it had set up three ministerial committees to help co-ordinate the search, and a new investigation team which would include members from Australia, China, the US, the UK and France.
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