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Old 04-05-2014, 07:55 PM
  #997  
patplan
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Joined APC: Mar 2014
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Report: A Chinese patrol ship detects "pulse" signal in search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.



It is consistent with where this signal's frequency supposed to be found, at 37.5 kilohertz. All parties seemed to be cautiously optimistic that this is the black box signal they've been looking for since this past week.

"I have been advised that a series of sounds have been detected by a Chinese ship in the search area. The characteristics reported are consistent with the aircraft black box," Angus Houston of Joint Agency Coordination Centre said. The agency had also received reports of white objects sighted on the ocean surface about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from where the electronic signals were detected.

Honeywell Aerospace, which made the boxes in the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, said the Underwater Acoustic Beacons on both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder operate at a frequency of 37.5 kilohertz plus or minus 1 kilohertz.

Waldock cautioned that "it's possible it could be an aberrant signal" from a nuclear submarine if there was one in the vicinity.

If the sounds can be verified, it would reduce the search area to about 10 square kilometers (4 square miles), Waldock said. Unmanned robot subs with sidescan sonar would then be sent into the water to try to locate the wreckage, he said.

John Goglia, a former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member, called the report "exciting," but cautioned that "there is an awful lot of noise in the ocean."

"One ship, one ping doesn't make a success story," he said. "It will have to be explored. I guarantee you there are other resources being moved into the area to see if it can be verified."
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