Australian and Chinese search teams hunting for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane have detected separate acoustic “pings” in different parts of the Indian Ocean, officials have announced. The two signals are roughly 300 miles apart.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua announced on Saturday that Chinese ship Haixun 01 had detected two signals, about 2 kilometres apart. The first signal was “fleeting” and detected on Friday afternoon, with a second detection, this time lasting roughly 90 seconds, on Saturday afternoon.
Search teams are now working to ascertain if the signals are from the black box recorder of flight MH370. The search team – consisting of efforts from several countries – is today made up of up to a dozen aircraft and 13 ships.
Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he's "hopeful but by no means certain" that a signal reportedly picked up in the Indian Ocean is linked to the missing airliner. Abbot also warned against reaching conclusions too soon:
“While we certainly are throwing everything we have at it, and while the best brains and the best technology and the in the world will be deployed, we need to be very careful about coming to hard and fast conclusions too soon,” he said.
It is now close to a month since flight MH370 disappeared and there are growing fears that the black box recorder will cease emitting a signal in the coming days.
