Flight MH370 Black Box Detected In Search? Chinese Ship Gets A Pulse Signal

After a month of no real clues in the search for the Flight MH370 black boxes, a lead that could prove to be critical was revealed when a Chinese patrol ship detect what appeared to be possible pulse signals.

The pings were reportedly detected in the area of the Indian Ocean that has been the focus of the search for Flight MH370, by the ship named Haixun 01, which recorded a signal with same frequency as that of the black boxes on board the missing plane.

An official with the news agency, Xinhua, said:

“Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 searching for flight MH370 discovered a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz per second in south Indian Ocean waters Saturday.”

The report on this latest lead in the search for Flight MH370’s black boxes is the most concrete yet, and is supported by sightings of white objects floating in the area by Chinese Air Force planes.

According to the British publication, The Guardian, Anish Patel, president of Dukane Seacom – which said it made the beacons for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders on board Flight MH370 – told CNN “the pulse was identical to the standard beacon frequency.”

The exact location where the Haixun 01 — one of two Chinese search ships looking for Fight MH370 — detected the transmission was about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude. However, Xinhua and others caution that the signal is yet to be confirmed to be that of the missing Malaysian airliner’s black boxes.

This could be a major breakthrough in what has been a string of dead ends in the search for Flight MH370, after four frustrating weeks for distraught families and crews working tirelessly to locate the black boxes, which hold data that could shed light in what exactly happened to the doomed plane.

Oceanographer Simon Boxall, a lecturer in ocean and earth science at the University of Southampton told CNN:

“We’ve had a lot of red herrings, hyperbole on this whole search. I’d really like to see this data confirmed.”

“If this proves to be what investigators have been searching for, then the possibility of recovering the plane — or at least the black boxes — goes from being one in a million to almost certain.”

However he said, “it could be a false signal” and take searchers back to square one in as the search area for Flight MH370 and its black boxes encompasses thousands of square miles. The focus of the search has been switched several times since the Malaysian PM stated that the lost plane had “ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.”

[Image via CBC.ca]