SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) – Chinese and Australian ships hunting for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner have picked up separate acoustic signals in different parts of a vast Indian Ocean search area and are trying to verify if one could be from the plane’s black box recorders.
Australian search authorities said today a Chinese patrol vessel, the Haixun 01, had picked up a fleeting “ping” signal twice in recent days in waters west of Perth, near where investigators believe Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went down on March 8.
More planes and ships were being sent to assist in that area.
Meanwhile, Australia’s HMAS Ocean Shield had reported a separate “acoustic event” some 300 nautical miles away.
The Ocean Shield is carrying sophisticated US Navy equipment designed to pick up signals sent from the black boxes, which may hold the key to why the aircraft ended up thousands of kilometres off course.
