Search and recovery continues for Malaysian flight MH370
Australia Search Authority Says Up to 12 Planes, 14 Ships to Assist in Monday’s Hunt For Flight 370
- Australia Search Authority Says Australian Navy Vessel to Continue Black Box Search in Own Area
- Australia Search Authority Says U.K. Navy Vessel En Route to Assist China’s Haixun, Seeking to Verify Pulse Signals
- Australia Search Authority Expects Good Weather for Search
One month on, Malaysians hold silent vigil for lost flight MH370
City lights may have brightened Dataran Merdeka last night, but the iconic landmark was unmistakably sombre, as small groups of people quietly gathered there to hold a candlelight vigil for the passengers and crew of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
It has now been exactly one month since flight MH370 has been missing, and despite a multinational search operation which has spanned oceans and countries, no one knows where the aircraft has landed, save for theories and plausible scenarios.
By 11.30pm, a small group of 150-odd Malaysians of different races stood within the concrete jungle of Kuala Lumpur, saying little but hoping for the impossible.
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Pings consistent with black box signal; 'Pings encouraging and important'
A
woman writes a message on a board for family members of passengers
onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at the Malaysian
Chinese Association (MCA) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur April 6, 2014.
International search planes and ships are heading to an area where a
Chinese ship twice heard what could be signals from MH370's black box
locators, Australian search authorities said on Sunday. (REUTERS)
Three separate signals have been detected so far raising hopes of solving the mystery of Flight MH370. Up to nine military planes, three civil planes and 14 ships were to take part in Monday's operation, Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said.
Angus
Houston, head of the Australian-led search mission, said Sunday the
signal detections were being taken "very seriously" as time ticked down
on the the black box tracking beacons.
‘Encouraging lead’ in search for missing plane
Australia sent planes and ships to investigate signals detected by a Chinese ship in the hunt for a missing Malaysian jet, saying they matched black box beacons and were an “important and encouraging lead”.
Angus Houston, the Australian head of the mission, said a second “ping” was also being scrutinised 300 nautical miles away in the Indian Ocean, as the one-month lifespan of batteries powering the beacons loomed.
Houston said China’s Haixun 01 has twice detected an underwater signal on a frequency used for flight data and cockpit voice recorders — once for 90 seconds on Saturday and another more fleeting “ping” on Friday a short distance away.
Signal detected ‘consistent with MH370 black box’
PERTH A signal detected by a Chinese ship searching the Indian Ocean for flight MH370 is “consistent” with the type emitted from the aircraft black box, according to the Australian ex-military chief in charge of the hunt.
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported late on Saturday that a black box detector on board the Chinese search ship had picked up a signal at a frequency of 37.5kHz. The Underwater Acoustic Beacons on the MH370 flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder both operate at that frequency, a spokesman for Honeywell Aerospace, the manufacturers of the black boxes on board the missing plane, said.
Ships have detected three separate underwater signals, and more ships and planes were diverted to investigate whether they could have come from its “black box”.
MH370: Is it the pinger? 4 reasons to believe; 6 reasons to doubt
After weeks of fruitless searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, it sounds like a promising sign. When a Chinese patrol ship picked up two pulses in the southern Indian Ocean, the head of the Australian agency coordinating search efforts called it "an important and encouraging lead."
Investigators hope the audio signals are locator beacons from the plane's data recorders, but they're not sure yet.
Is it the discovery we've all been waiting for? Could those be Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's pingers?
MH370 skirted Indonesia apparently to avoid radar: Report
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 flew around Indonesian airspace apparently to avoid detection after vanishing from radar screens on March 8, a media report said today, suggesting the possibility of a more sinister reason behind the jet's disappearance.
Malaysian authorities, citing expert analysis of satellite, radar and other data available, concluded earlier that the ill-fated flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
According to previous information, the Boeing 777-200 aircraft turned back after disappearing from civilian radar in Vietnamese airspace, and was detected by Malaysian military radar in the northern Strait of Malacca before vanishing from all radar screens.
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M'sian minister DENIES report MH370 'skirted Indonesian airspace' to evade radar
The crashed Malaysia Airlines flight, MH370 had not skirted Indonesian airspace in a bid to evade radar detection as reported by CNN, said acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.
"I got the Chief of the Malaysian Defence Force to contact his Indonesian counterpart, and they have confirmed they have had no sighting of the plane," said Hishammuddin at the MH370 press conference held at the Royal Chulan here on Monday.
Hishammuddin had been asked about the report made by CNN senior international correspondent Phil Robertson, who quoted a "senior Malaysian Government official" confirming that the information regarding the flight of the Boeing 777 had been determined based on radar data from Malaysia's neighbours.
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Some questions on the missing aircraft answered
Are the ‘pings’ from MH370? - That remains to be determined, but Australia’s search chief said one of the country’s naval ships had twice detected signals “consistent” with aircraft black boxes, the strongest indication yet that the hunt for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was on the right trail.
If they are from MH370, what happens next? - If the pings are confirmed, authorities would deploy a submersible device to scan the seabed for debris. If found, the difficult task of reaching and recovering the black box in ocean depths ranging from 4,000m-5,000m would begin
Seafloor-mapping and recovery is “a very intense and time-consuming process”, said Anthony Brickhouse, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the United States But lessons were learnt during the two-year search for the data recorders from the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447, which contributed greatly to today’s body of knowledge, he said.
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Search for MH370 goes underwater
The Bluefin 21, the Artemis autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), is hoisted back on board the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield after a successful buoyancy test in the southern Indian Ocean as part of the continuing search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the U.S. Navy April 4, 2014. Photo: Reuters
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in remote seas off Australia headed underwater today (April 4), with a US Navy high tech “black box” locator deployed for the first time as the battery life of the cockpit data recorder dwindles.
Australian authorities said the so-called Towed Pinger Locator will be pulled behind navy ship HMAS Ocean Shield, searching a converging course on a 240km track with British hydrographic survey ship HMS Echo.
“The area of highest probability as to where the aircraft might have entered the water is the area where the underwater search will commence,” Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, told reporters in Perth.
Search for Flight MH370 goes underwater today in desperate race to detect pings before black box dies
This handout photo taken on April 1, 2014 and released on April 4 by Australian Defence shows personnel from Phoenix International testing the functionality of the Artemis autonomous underwater vehicle on the deck of Australian ship Ocean Shield as it searches for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean
Two ships with sophisticated equipment zeroed in Friday on a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean in a desperate underwater hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet’s black boxes, whose batteries will soon run out.
An arduous weeks-long hunt has not turned up a single piece of wreckage, which could have led the searchers to the plane and eventually to its black boxes containing key information about the flight. But the searchers have apparently decided to make a direct attempt to find the devices, whose batteries last about a month.
But the head of the joint agency co-ordinating the search acknowledged that the search area was essentially just a best guess — and noted that time was running out for search crews to find the coveted data recorders. “The locater beacon will last about a month before it ceases its transmissions — so we’re now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire,” Angus Houston said.
2 new pings sound 'just like' black box beacons
An Australian ship detected two distinct, long-lasting sounds underwater that are consistent with the pings from aircraft black boxes in a major break in the monthlong hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, the search coordinator said Monday.
Navy specialists were urgently trying to pick up the signal again so they can triangulate its position and go to the next step of sending an unmanned miniature submarine into the depths to try to identify plane wreckage.
Confirmation that the signals picked up by the Australian navy ship Ocean Shield belong to Flight 370's black boxes could take days, but the discovery offers "a most promising lead" yet, said Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the multinational search. They were stronger and lasted longer than faint signals a Chinese ship reported hearing farther south in the search zone in the remote Indian Ocean.
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Search leader confirms suspected signals detected by both Australian, Chinese vessels
Chief
Coordinator of the multinational search team hunting for the missing
Malaysian flight MH370 on Sunday confirmed that vessels from both
Australia and China had detected suspected pulse signals in recent days,
saying more ships and planes are deployed for further verifications and
he is satisfied with the current cooperation with China.
Angus
Houston, head of the Joint Agency Coordination Center ( JACC) told a
press conference that he was well advised by the Chinese side about the
"ping" picked up by the search vessel Haixun 01 in the past two days.
According
to media reports, experts onboard the Haixun 01 detected a pulse signal
twice with a frequency of 37.5 kHz per second, which is the same as
emitted by flight recorders.
Ships zero in on search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in Indian Ocean
SHIPS
are heading to the zone in the Indian Ocean where underwater signals
may at last reveal the fate of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
CNN reports
that British navy ship HMS Echo has entered the zone where Chinese
patrol vessel Haixun 01 picked up two underwater signals only two
kilometres apart.
The
Australian vessel Ocean Shield is expected to reach the search area
later today or tomorrow. Both the Ocean Shield and HMS Echo have
deep-sea listening equipment.
Twelve aircraft and 14 ships will be part of today’s search effort, covering an area of approximately 234,000 square kilometres.
Chinese aircraft finds floating objects as pulse signals are being checked
Chinese military aircraft has spotted a set of floating objects in southern Indian Ocean west of Australia's Perth.
The findings came a day after a Chinese ship heard pulse signals which are being checked by Chinese and Australian authorities to determine if they came from the for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
The new findings of 20-odd white floating objects have been reported to Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) coordinating the search operation after the Chinese surveillance aircraft returns to the base at 4.30 pm, Perth time, on Saturday.
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MH370 Tragedy: Search and recovery continues (Day 31)
Up to nine military planes, three civil planes and 14 ships will assist in today's search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The search area is expected to be approximately 234,000 square kilometres. Good weather is expected throughout the day with showers in the afternoon although this is not expected to affect the search.
ADV Ocean Shield is continuing investigations in its own area. HMS Echo is en route to assist the Chinese vessel Haixun 01, which detected pulse signals in the Indian Ocean.
Several experts and investigators believe that the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 crashed and took the lives of all 239 people on board apparently because they think that one of the pilots had committed suicide. According to "well-placed sources" as reported by the Telegraph, the Malaysia Airlines "Flight MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean in an apparent suicide mission."
The group of investigators working on the case thinks that it is very unlikely that the deactivation of the transponder or other means of aircraft communication systems would be due to a mechanical failure or fire onboard. The jetliner had reportedly flown off-course for seven more hours before it lunged and capsized underwater
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Zero Days To Locate Black Box of MH370
Search For Mystery Of MH370 Continues
Searching For The Disappearance of MH370
Flight MH370 Ended In The Southern Indian Ocean
Flight MH370: What's Known And What's Speculation
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Goes Missing
