"Pings" detected are best lead yet in Malaysia jet search

An Australian naval ship hunting for the missing Malaysian jet has detected fresh underwater signals consistent with aircraft black boxes in what officials today said was the "most promising lead" yet, raising hopes of solving the unprecedented month-long aviation mystery.
Australian defence vessel Ocean Shield has detected signals consistent with those from aircraft black boxes twice, once for more than two hours in the Indian Ocean, said Air Chief Marshal (retd) Angus Houston, the head of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) which is leading the search.
"This is the most promising lead, probably in the search so far, it's probably the best information we've had," he said.

"Two separate signal detections have occurred within the northern part of the defined search area. The first detection was held for approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes. The ship then lost contact before conducting a turn and attempting to re-acquire the signal," Houston said.
"The second detection on the return leg was held for approximately 13 minutes. On this occasion, two distinct pinger returns were audible," he said, adding that the sounds were heard at a depth of 4,500 metres.
"We've got a visual indication on a screen, and we've also got an audible signal. And the audible signal sounds to me just like an emergency locator beacon," he said.

Houston's remarks came only a few hours before the pingers stop transmitting the signals as the batteries inside the beacons, which are designed to start sending signals when a plane crashes into water, last about 30 days after it is activated.

However, it could take days before officials can confirm whether the signals did indeed come from the plane, which fell off the radar on March 8 with 239 people, including five Indians on board.
"In very deep oceanic water, nothing happens fast. I would ask all of you to treat this information cautiously and responsibly...We haven't found the aircraft yet. We are encouraged that we are very close to where we need to be," Houston said.

Finding the black box is crucial to know what happened on March 8 before the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 Flight MH370 disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Houston said the position of the signals would need to be fixed before an autonomous underwater vehicle 'Blue Fin 21' could be deployed to locate the wreckage.
Meanwhile, Malaysia today said it is "cautiously hopeful" of positive developments in the MH370 search after the latest detections of two signals.
"We are cautiously hopeful there would be positive development in days if not hours," Malaysia's acting transport minister Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.