The Australian chief of the MH 370 flight search team just announced that signals sounding like pingers have been heard by an Australian naval vessel. 1st signal held for 2 hrs and 20 minutes. 2nd detection held for 13 minutes but more important two "distinct" signals were heard. The ocean depth in the area is 4500 M. The ship is doing an expanding square search attempting to pin the location down to a 2 mile square. This will take another day or two since they search with a USN towed receiver at (I think) 3000 M and at 3 KT. It takes 3 hours to make a turn and a total of 7 hours a leg. Compared to the speed of aircraft searching, the time to do a deep water search is very long!
The location of the presumed target is within the search area defined by the latest satellite analysis.
They will not claim a find until parts of the 777 are recovered on the surface, or pictures of the remains are taken at the sea bottom. After the location is pinned down sufficiently with the pinger listening device, a remotely controlled vehicle rated at 4500 M will use a side scan sonar to accurately define the location and then take pictures.
It looks like it will take many months to recover and read out the recorders, but eventually we will all know what happened during that final flight of MH 370.
Last edited by bob1vt; 7th Apr 2014 at 19:04.
Reason: Fix uncertaintly of ship nationality and search depth.