Five Saturdays ago MAS flight MH370 vanished off civilian radar while over the Gulf of Thailand, en route to Beijing. Search efforts in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia are now being narrowed down from audio signals detected, believed to be from the plane's black box.
9.35am: According to New Straits Times today, the criminal investigation has revealed that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Rahman made a phone call while the plane was flying close to Penang.
It reports that the call was abruptly cut off and investigators are trying to establish the details of the call.
9.04am: The Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) led by Australia says up to nine military aircraft, one civil aircraft and 14 ships will assist in today’s search.
"Today the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totalling approximately 41,393 square km. The centre of the search areas lies approximately 2,331 km north west of Perth."
However, it reports that "there have been no confirmed acoustic detections over the past 24 hours".
It says a number of objects recovered from the ocean surface are also not related to the missing aircraft.
Two ships and aircraft will try to narrow down the black box’s location before sending underwater drone Bluefin-21 to find it.
“Today, Australian defence vessel (ADV) Ocean Shield continues more focused sweeps with the Towed Pinger Locator to try and locate further signals related to the aircraft's black boxes.
“The AP-3C Orions continue their acoustic search, working in conjunction with Ocean Shield. The oceanographic ship HMS Echo is also working in the area with Ocean Shield,” says the JACC in a statement.
Weather conditions indicate isolated showers, reducing visibility to five km and sea swells up to a metre.
RECAP:
The ADV Ocean Shield is fitted with a TPL-25 towed pinger locator and a Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), both supplied by the US Navy.
JACC chief Angus Houston has described it as the best-equipped vessel in the search.
Along with the British vessel HMS Echo and sonobuoys dropped from aircraft, search crew will attempt to detect sounds from MH370’s black box pinger about 4.5 km below the ocean surface.
Further detections will give them a better idea of the source of the signals and narrow the search area for the AUV.
This is important because the sonar and camera-equipped drone can only search a small area each day compared to the pinger locator, which is essentially a highly specialised underwater microphone.
Thus far, ADV Ocean Shield has detected signals consistent with the black box pingers on four occasions within the same area. A fifth detection via a sonobuoy has been discounted as being unrelated.
Houston has stopped short of saying that these signals are from MH370, and insisted on making visual confirmation of a wreckage first before doing so.
Thus far, no decision have been made on when to send the AUV, but Houston said it may be days ahead, when it is certain that the pinger’s batteries have exhausted.
The batteries are only designed to last 30 days, but may extend to 45 days in practice.
The condition of MH370's pinger batteries have however been questioned over the past weeks.
Latest developments
- No signals detected in the last 24 hours
- 10 aircraft and 14 ships assist in today's search
9.35am: According to New Straits Times today, the criminal investigation has revealed that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Rahman made a phone call while the plane was flying close to Penang.
It reports that the call was abruptly cut off and investigators are trying to establish the details of the call.
9.04am: The Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) led by Australia says up to nine military aircraft, one civil aircraft and 14 ships will assist in today’s search.
"Today the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has planned a visual search area totalling approximately 41,393 square km. The centre of the search areas lies approximately 2,331 km north west of Perth."
However, it reports that "there have been no confirmed acoustic detections over the past 24 hours".
It says a number of objects recovered from the ocean surface are also not related to the missing aircraft.
Two ships and aircraft will try to narrow down the black box’s location before sending underwater drone Bluefin-21 to find it.
“Today, Australian defence vessel (ADV) Ocean Shield continues more focused sweeps with the Towed Pinger Locator to try and locate further signals related to the aircraft's black boxes.
“The AP-3C Orions continue their acoustic search, working in conjunction with Ocean Shield. The oceanographic ship HMS Echo is also working in the area with Ocean Shield,” says the JACC in a statement.
Weather conditions indicate isolated showers, reducing visibility to five km and sea swells up to a metre.
RECAP:
The ADV Ocean Shield is fitted with a TPL-25 towed pinger locator and a Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), both supplied by the US Navy.
JACC chief Angus Houston has described it as the best-equipped vessel in the search.
Along with the British vessel HMS Echo and sonobuoys dropped from aircraft, search crew will attempt to detect sounds from MH370’s black box pinger about 4.5 km below the ocean surface.
Further detections will give them a better idea of the source of the signals and narrow the search area for the AUV.
This is important because the sonar and camera-equipped drone can only search a small area each day compared to the pinger locator, which is essentially a highly specialised underwater microphone.
Thus far, ADV Ocean Shield has detected signals consistent with the black box pingers on four occasions within the same area. A fifth detection via a sonobuoy has been discounted as being unrelated.
Houston has stopped short of saying that these signals are from MH370, and insisted on making visual confirmation of a wreckage first before doing so.
Thus far, no decision have been made on when to send the AUV, but Houston said it may be days ahead, when it is certain that the pinger’s batteries have exhausted.
The batteries are only designed to last 30 days, but may extend to 45 days in practice.
The condition of MH370's pinger batteries have however been questioned over the past weeks.
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