Malaysia plane MH370: Possible new signal in search
A plane searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has
detected a possible new signal in the southern Indian Ocean, Australian
officials say. An Australian P-3 Orion aircraft picked up the signal in
the same area where an Australian vessel detected audio pings earlier
this week, officials said. The signal would require further analysis,
but could have been from a “man-made source”, officials said. Flight
MH370 vanished on 8 March, with 239 people on board.The search zone was
tightened on Thursday after a US navy “towed pinger locator” picked up
audio signals in the area, sparking hopes that the plane’s black box was
in the area.Australian vessel Ocean Shield picked up four acoustic
signals in the area, twice over the weekend and twice on Tuesday.
Speaking after the latest possible signal was detected, retired Air
Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is leading search efforts, said: “The
acoustic data will require further analysis overnight but shows
potential of being from a man-made source.” Up to 14 planes and 13 ships
are involved in Thursday’s search, scouring an area of 57,923 sq km (22
300 sq miles), around 2,280km (1,400 miles) north-west of Perth. It is
the smallest designated area in the hunt to date.Planes have dropped
buoys equipped with hydrophone listening devices into the water to help
pick up signals.
The batteries on the black box only last about a month, so teams need
to work quickly to track the audio signals before they stop
broadcasting.Malaysia’s acting transport minister has defended the
investigation in an interview for BBC News, his first with a major
Western broadcaster.
Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia had “nothing to hide”, and he was
“cautious” over the audio signals picked up by search teams.”We’ve been
following all sorts of leads from the South China Sea to the Straits of
Malacca to the Andaman Sea,” he said. “We have to be cautious because
the families’ emotions are still very raw and I’ve been through this
rollercoaster ride.” Malaysia has come under criticism for its handling
of the search, with families of the passengers on the plane accusing the
authorities of a lack of transparency.
The investigation came under further scrutiny after it emerged that
the final words from the plane were “good night Malaysian three seven
zero”, and not “all right, good night”, as previously reported by the
government.However, Hishammuddin Hussein defended his handling of the
search, saying the transcript had been released and the discrepancy in
the words didn’t “really matter”.”We have formed the committees,
international experts are on board, we’ve got panels of inquiries [on
the search],” he said. “Malaysia has got nothing to hide.” He added that
the full cost of the search for the plane, and which countries would
bear the cost, were not yet clear, but that the search cost was
“peanuts” compared to the costs of other international crises.
“How much is Ukraine costing everybody?” he asked. “How much has it
been for Syria and it’s still unfolding? How much does it cost the
people of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Iraq? Not only in dollars and cents but
in lives. Here it is peanuts.” Officials say satellite data show the
plane, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, ended up in the
southern Indian Ocean, far from its original flight path.Investigators
still do not know why MH370 strayed so far off course, after
disappearing over the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam.The
backgrounds of both passengers and crew have been scrutinised as
officials consider hijacking, sabotage, pilot action or mechanical
failure as possible causes.
- BBC
|
