Australia, April 7 – Chief coordinator for the search of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Monday said Australian navy ship Ocean Shield has detected suspicious signals consistent with aircraft black boxes, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
The towed pinger locator deployed from Ocean Shield has detected signals consistent with those emitted from aircraft black boxes,” Angus Houston, former Australian defence minister who heads the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), told reporters.
Describing the new detection as “the most promising lead,” Houston warned it has to be treated cautiously and responsibly until final determination is made.
He said that after Ocean Shield, equipped with U.S. towed pinger locator heard the suspicious signals, the next stop is to fix the position and attempt to locate wreckage.We cannot confirm until we find wreckage. It may take some days for the confirmation,” he said.
Houston said the waters where new signals were detected have a depth of 4,500 metres making it difficult to retrieve the black boxes if they are lying on the ocean floor.
The new discovery was made in a sea area north of the location where Chinese vessel Haixun 01 picked up suspicious signals on Saturday. Houston said it remains unknown whether the two are related.
-BERNAMA
