PERTH, Australia, April 5 (UPI) -- Investigators looking for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 said they detected a 90-second stream of pings while searching in the Indian Ocean.
"I have been advised that a series of sounds have been detected by a Chinese ship in the search area," Angus Houston, the chief coordinator of Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center, said in a prepared statement. "The characteristics reported are consistent with the aircraft black box."
"However, there is no confirmation at this stage that the signals and the objects are related to the missing aircraft," the retired air chief marshal added.
A detector on the Haixun 01 patrol ship picked up the signal near 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude. That's about 1,020 miles west-northwest of Perth, Australia.
"It's not the prime search area, but it's not out of the question that this could possibly be from the black box," said David Gallo, who is with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The aircraft went missing March 8 with 239 people on board.
[CNN] [Wall Street Journal]
Read More
- Black box locator equipment deployed underwater in search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- Malaysian PM travels to Australia to express appreciation for international search efforts
- Search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crash site continues to be refined
- Malaysian police on Flight 370: 'We may not even know the real cause'
- 10 planes and 9 ships search 120,000 square kilometer area west of Perth for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
