Search teams 'encouraged' by evidence of MH370 location

An Australian navy ship has detected new signals "consistent" with aircraft "black boxes", the head of Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre said on Monday, as search teams raced against time in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

"The towed pinger locator deployed from the Australian defense vessel Ocean Shield has detected signals consistent with those emitted from aircraft black boxes," Angus Houston said in Perth.

The towed pinger locator heard a first signal for two hours and 20 minutes, and a second signal for 13 minutes, Houston said, adding that the signals had left the search team "encouraged" that they were very close to where they need to be.

"Clearly this is a most promising lead," he told reporters.

A multinational sea and air fleet coordinated by Australia is scouring the vast Indian Ocean for further underwater signals in the hunt for MH370 as the plane's black box batteries wind down to the end of their life.

MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew members. Of the passengers, 154 were Chinese.

Up to nine military planes, three civil planes and 14 ships were taking part in Monday's operation, the JACC said.

Speaking at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the authorities are hopeful for progress in the search over the next few days.

"We are cautiously hopeful there will be positive developments in the next few days, if not hours," he said.

Hishammuddin cited the new signals detected by Ocean Shield, saying the developments were the "most promising leads" so far in the search for the plane.

"I urge all to treat this information responsibly and give us time for verification," he said.

Hishammuddin also said the next of kin of passengers will be taken to Perth when the wreckage or black box is found.

The latest search area was expected to be about 234,000 square kilometers on Monday, JACC said, predicting good weather throughout the day in a region regularly hit by storms and mountainous seas.

Ocean Shield is equipped with a US-made pinger locator and underwater search vehicle, which found the black box of an Air France airplane that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009.

If the signal's location is confirmed, the underwater vehicle Bluefin 21 would be deployed into the 4,500-meter-deep water to search for wreckage and take pictures.

Three separate signals were detected over the weekend, raising hopes of solving the mystery of the plane.

A black-box detector deployed by the Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 detected a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5 kilohertz per second on Saturday.

But that signal has not been confirmed as related to the missing jet, the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said.

A Chinese military aircraft also spotted white floating objects in the remote southern Indian Ocean west of Perth on Saturday.

Referring to the pulse signal received by the Chinese vessel, which was 555km from the other location, Houston said it was "unlikely" that the two signals were the same because they were too far apart.

According to search task force commander Commodore Peter Leavy, pinpointing the origin of the sound will likely be a very slow and challenging process because of the distortion of sound waves in the ocean.

Crew aboard the Australian navy ship HMAS Success look over to the Malaysian navy ship KD Lekiu in the southern Indian Ocean during the continuing search for missing Flight MH370 on Monday. Australian Defence Force / Handout via Reuters

(China Daily USA 04/08/2014 page5)