China 'Heard Ping' on Missing Plane's Frequency
BANGKOK — China's official news agency is reporting what could be a breakthrough in locating the Malaysia Airlines jet missing for nearly a month in southeast Asia. A Chinese ship says it heard a "ping" signal on the radio frequency used by the plane's flight recorder, to the north of the latest search area.
The Xinhua news agency says the Chinese patrol shipHaixun 01 in the southern Indian Ocean detected a pulse signal on the radio frequency 37.5 kilohertz.
This prompted immediate hopes that the signal could trace back to the flight recorder, or "black box," of missing flight MH370.
The Chinese report was not immediately confirmed by authorities in China, Malaysia or Australia. But aviation experts in the United States and elsewhere say it is conceivable that such a signal could have come from the plane, which is presumed to have gone down at sea with the loss of all 239 people on board.
Search planes and boats have been crisscrossing a large area of the southern Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometers off the western coast of Australia, where the plane is believed to have gone down. An analysis of some of the last known data signals from the jet, monitored by a satellite, pointed search teams to that remote stretch of ocean.
Xinhua says Haixun 01 detected the underwater signal after beginning a search Friday somewhat north of the one-million-square-kilometer primary search area designated by Australia.
The search for signals from the Boeing 777's flight recorders has been intense during the past week, since the batteries powering the emergency beacons could be exhausted at any time.
Malaysia and Australian officials offered only pessimistic forecasts this past week, saying that, without any confirmed recovery of debris from the plane, the mystery of what happened may never be known.
Australia's prime minister has called the search for the plane the most complex such undertaking in history.
The plane disappeared during the early stages of a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, in the early hours of March 8.
fuente: La Voz de América, http://www.voanews.com/content/underwater-search-for-mh370-black-box-begins/1886917.html
The Xinhua news agency says the Chinese patrol shipHaixun 01 in the southern Indian Ocean detected a pulse signal on the radio frequency 37.5 kilohertz.
This prompted immediate hopes that the signal could trace back to the flight recorder, or "black box," of missing flight MH370.
The Chinese report was not immediately confirmed by authorities in China, Malaysia or Australia. But aviation experts in the United States and elsewhere say it is conceivable that such a signal could have come from the plane, which is presumed to have gone down at sea with the loss of all 239 people on board.
Search planes and boats have been crisscrossing a large area of the southern Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometers off the western coast of Australia, where the plane is believed to have gone down. An analysis of some of the last known data signals from the jet, monitored by a satellite, pointed search teams to that remote stretch of ocean.
Xinhua says Haixun 01 detected the underwater signal after beginning a search Friday somewhat north of the one-million-square-kilometer primary search area designated by Australia.
The search for signals from the Boeing 777's flight recorders has been intense during the past week, since the batteries powering the emergency beacons could be exhausted at any time.
Malaysia and Australian officials offered only pessimistic forecasts this past week, saying that, without any confirmed recovery of debris from the plane, the mystery of what happened may never be known.
Australia's prime minister has called the search for the plane the most complex such undertaking in history.
The plane disappeared during the early stages of a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, in the early hours of March 8.
fuente: La Voz de América, http://www.voanews.com/content/underwater-search-for-mh370-black-box-begins/1886917.html
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