AFP
April 8, 2014, 4:31 pm
The HMAS Success, taking part in the search for missing Flight MH370, after ships complete a replenishment in the southern Indian Ocean. AFP/CPOIS David Connolly
The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could soon head to the ocean floor using an autonomous sonar vessel after possible black box signals were detected, the head of the Australian-led search operation said.
A month to the day since the Boeing 777 disappeared, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston warned that hopes of finding surface debris were fading and that sonic "pings" detected by the Australian naval ship Ocean Shield were the best lead.
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Houston told ABC radio Tuesday that once the position of the signals was pinpointed, autonomous underwater vessel Bluefin-21 would be deployed to the ocean floor to search for wreckage. And this could happen soon.
A map showing the designated undersea search area for MH370 based on signals detected by search ships at the weekend. Photo: AFP.
"I haven't had the discussion this morning, we'll be having that discussion a little later on," he told ABC radio.
"I imagine we'd be getting very close to that point."
Searchers have not detected any new signals that could be from the missing plane's black box recorder, authorities said today.
Houston said underwater vehicles would not be launched until a signal is received or until there was no doubt that the batteries in the black box recorders had expired.
"Only when we stop the pinger search will we deploy the submersible, unless we get another transmission in which case we are better able to know what is down there," Air Chief Marshal Houston said.
"The issue is that if we can't get another transmission we can't get a better fix on the ocean floor which will enable a more narrowly focused search.
"If we go down there now and do a visual search it will take many, many days.
He said advice from around the world was that while the black box batteries were certified for 30 days they "usually last longer than that".
The search is now focusing on a 600-kilometre arc of the southern Indian Ocean, far off the West Australian coast.
Houston announced Monday that Ocean Shield had detected underwater signals consistent with aircraft "black boxes", calling it the "most promising lead" so far.
A helicopter leaves the flight deck of HMAS SUCCESS as it completes a replenishment at sea in the search for Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Photo: AFP.
The apparent signals breakthrough came as the clock ticks past the 30-day lifespan of the emergency beacons of the two data recorders from the Malaysia Airlines jet, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
"As a consequence there is a chance the locator beacon is about to cease transmission, or has ceased transmission," Houston said.
"I think it's absolutely imperative to find something else and hopefully when we put the autonomous vehicle down, its capability is such that it'll be able to find wreckage.
"Unfortunately with the passage of time, oceanic drift and all the rest of it -- particularly as a cyclone went through that area in the last few days -- the chances of finding anything on the surface are diminishing with time."
Houston explained that the 4500m depth of the ocean floor was the absolute operating limit for a Bluefin-21, which is designed for deep sea surveying and can carry video cameras.
"It can't go deeper than that, so it's quite incredible how finely balanced all of this is," he said.
"It's a long, painstaking process, particularly when you start searching the depths of the ocean floor."
Up to eleven military planes, three civilian planes and 14 ships were Tuesday set to take part in the unprecedented search 2,200 kilometres northwest of Perth.
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