Authorities have expanded a visual search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet as a failure to detect further signals from the plane’s black box recorders deepened concern the devices’ battery power had expired.
Four signals were heard between April 5 and 8, but no further signs have been confirmed from the pinger locator pulled by the search vessel Ocean Shield.
Australia deployed more planes to comb a 57,506 square kilometre area, while a seabed-scanning robot submarine remained unused.
Two sounds heard a week ago by Ocean Shield were determined to be consistent with the signals emitted from the black boxes. Two more pings were detected in the same general area on Tuesday, but no new ones have been picked up since then.
“We’re now into day 37 of this tragedy,” said aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas.
“The battery life on the beacons is supposed to last 30 days. We’re hoping it might last 40 days. However, it’s been four or five days since the last strong pings. What they’re hoping for is to get one more, maybe two more pings so they can narrow the [search] area.”
Once officials are confident that no more sounds will be heard, a robotic submersible will be sent down to slowly scour for wreckage.
Recovering the flight data and cockpit voice recorders is essential if investigators are to solve the mystery of flight MH370, which vanished on March 8.
source: scmp.com
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 