Hopes raised of finding missing airliner after signals picked up

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went 4.5km below the waves yesterday as investigators follow up on signals that could come from the aircraft's black box recorder.

The fate of the aircraft, which fell off radar on March 8th, on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, remains a mystery and 133 search missions so far have come up with little.

"This is the most positive lead and we are pursuing it very vigorously," Australian defence minister David Johnston told reporters.

Australian investigators are following up underwater pulses detected about 1,750km northwest of Perth. The first ping lasted for more than two hours and a second lasted for about 13 minutes: they are consistent with the kind sent by a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.It allows investigators to narrow the field.

The search has been hampered by cyclones and strong currents. Investigators are using the Australian ship Ocean Shield , which is carrying two pieces of US equipment to scan for signs of the aircraft: a signal locator and a Bluefin-21 submarine. The signals need to be located before the Bluefin can be used.

Batteries in the beacons are designed to start sending signals when a plane hits water, and lasts for about 30 days after that, officials said.

Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, chief of the Australian agency coordinating the search, described the pings as "probably the best information that we have had . . . we are very close to where we need to be."

The relatives of the missing passengers and crew have had to deal with a month of grief and anxiety, and false leads and clues, almost daily since the search began.

Mr Houston urged caution. “We haven’t found the aircraft yet,” he said. “We need further confirmation.”

Chinese reports
Teams are also still investigating pulses detected late last week by a Chinese ship about 600km southwest of the area Ocean Shield is in. The Chinese said the electronic pulses – detected only 2km apart – were consistent with those emitted by a black box.

The US is believed to have spent more than €2.4 million so far, while the Australians are spending more than half a million dollars a day on just one of the ships it has in the Indian Ocean.

More than two dozen countries have played some role in the search, overseen by Malaysia; they include China, Australia, the US, Britain, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. Authorities have not ruled out mechanical failure in the missing plane but say evidence, including loss of communications, suggests it was diverted.