Aussie ship fails to detect pings, fears batteries are dead
The Malaysian Insider – 1 hour 18 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- Aussie ship fails to detect pings, fears batteries are dead
Ships listening for underwater signals from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have logged no more "pings", amid fears that the plane's emergency locator batteries have died.
Seachers said the ships will now spend several more days trying to pinpoint a crash site before a mini-sub is launched to scour the seabed.
This comes after yesterday's announcement that the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield had detected two acoustic events, described as the "most promising lead" in the month-long search.
Earlier transmissions picked up by the ship had raised hopes that a robotic submersible would soon be sent down to look for debris.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald , it has now been more than 40 hours since the ship detected any transmission.
The spot where the signals were detected coincides with analysis from two weeks ago, which estimated where the final satellite contact with the plane occurred. It is thought this final "half-handshake" could have been the moment at which the plane ran out of fuel and plunged into the ocean.
The underwater locator beacon attached to an aircraft's black box has a minimum battery life of 30 days. It is now day 32 since the disappearance of MAS flight MH370, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
"There have been no further contacts with any transmissions and we need to continue that for several days, right up until there's absolutely no doubt that the pinger batteries have expired,", the SMH quoted Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, Air Chief Marshal (ret) Angus Houston as saying today.
He added that the automatic underwater vehicle, the Bluefin-21, fitted with sonar and camera capabilities, would not be deployed until there were further transmissions that would narrow the seafloor search. – April 8, 2014.
