within its depth operating limits.
That is a ryder to the statement and to me causes confusion/doubt , why add it?
These pings, what were they? A fault in the ship or TPL electronics that caused a piece of circuitry (probably an amplifier) to go into oscillation not an unusual fault, BUT asking for it to be intermittent at a regular mark to space ratio of 1.1sec and 33.7kc , sorry I find that one difficult.
Be interesting to see where the next search starts, any bets on it being the failed bluefin search area.