Sunday, April 6, 2014

Malaysia missing plane search China ship 'picks up signal'


Australian (AHS) nautical charts overlayed on Google satellite pictures.

Note that the region of the search displays very recent satellite imagery, 
taken between March 18 and 31, 2014 as part of the search for MH370.
The dates are displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the app, and the imagery is credited to CNES/Astrium,
which manages the SPOT satellite program

Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01, searching for the missing Malaysian passenger jet MH370,
detected a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz per second in southern Indian Ocean waters Saturday.
A black box detector deployed by the Haixun 01 picked up the signal at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longtitude.
It is yet to be established whether it is related to the missing jet.

A Chinese ship involved in the hunt for a missing Malaysian jet reported hearing a "pulse signal" in the Indian Ocean on Saturday with the same frequency emitted by flight data recorders, as Malaysian officials vowed not to give up the search.
Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the joint agency coordinating the operation, said in a statement the characteristics reported by the Chinese vessel are consistent with the aircraft’s black box.
However, he cautioned there was no confirmation the signals are related to MH370. 
A patrol ship first picked up the signal on Friday when it was detected intermittently for about 15 minutes.
But Haixun, China's largest patrol vessel, picked up the signal again on Saturday, when it was detected every second for 90 seconds.

 The approximate location is just north of the designated search area west of Perth, 

from JACC
but close to the circumference of the original “ping arc” generated from the Inmarsat satellite, which shows a possible range of locations for MH370 when it last made contact on an hourly basis.

April 5th, day 28 - "Pulse signal detected by Chinese Vessel Haixun 01"
25.29°S / 101.59°E on Google Maps

 Update : OpenSeaMap with MarineTraffic positions of Haixun and HMS Echo in the area

 from earthref.org
The pinger locator can detect a box’s signals, but only from 1.6 km away.
The area where Haixun may have detected the black box has water depths of 4,000 to 5,000 m.

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