Missing Malaysian jet: New signal detected, hunt area narrowed down

Perth A fresh underwater acoustic signal possibly from the crashed Malaysian jet was today detected fuelling hopes of an early breakthrough in the arduous hunt for the plane as searchers zeroed in on a smaller area in the Indian OceanOn the 33rd day of the search for the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that vanished mysteriously on March 8 with 239 people on board an Australian naval aircraft picked up an underwater signal in the same area where searchers in ships previously detected sounds consistent with a planes black boxThis handout photo by Australian Defence shows a Maritime Warfare Officer watching HMAS Success as HMAS Perth approaches for a replenishment at sea while searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean PicAFPWhile conducting an acoustic search this afternoon an RAAF AP3C Orion aircraft detected a possible signal in the vicinity of the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield said Angus Houston head of the Perthbased Joint Agency Coordination Centre JACC which is leading the searchThe acoustic data will require further analysis overnight but shows potential of being from a manmade source Houston saidFinding the black box is crucial to know why the Beijing bound Boeing 777200 with 239 people including five Indians veered off from its route after taking off from Kuala LumpurThe batteries of the black box flight recorders have a life of about 30 days meaning they either might have been or are on the verge of being drained outStored in a planes tail they are designed to begin sending off distinct highpitched pings or signals as soon as they come in contact with waterThe Ocean Shield bearing a special US Navy towed pinger locator had picked up two fresh signals on Tuesday that matched a pair of signals detected over the weekend consistent with a planes black boxToday Australian Maritime Safety Authority AMSA narrowed down drastically the search area to about 57923 sq km from yesterdays 75000 sq km the smallest yet in the monthlong hunt The centre of the search area lies approximately 2280 km north west of PerthUp to 10 military aircraft four civil aircraft and 13 ships were assist in todays search for the plane that authorities believe crashed in the Indian Ocean The three vessels the Ocean Shield to the north and the British HMS Echo and Chinese Haixun 01 to the south were focussing underwaterThe development came a day after Houston expressed the searchers are approaching the final resting place of the illfated plane Im now optimistic Well find the aircraft or whats left of the aircraft in the not too distant future Hopefully in a matter of days we will be able to find something on the bottom that might confirm that this is the last resting place of MH370 he said yesterday Aircraft and ships reported spotting a large number of objects during yesterdays search but only a small number were able to be recoveredNone of the recovered items were believed to be associated with the Boeing 777200 Houston had said there will be no confirmation of a link to the plane until wreckage is foundIn another major development yesterday Australian authorities analysed the signals picked up on Saturday and determined that they were not natural occurrences but likely came from specific electronic equipment Some marine life make similar soundsAll the earlier four pings were recorded within approximately 27 kilometres of one another The mystery of the missing plane has continued to baffle aviation and security authorities who have so far failed to trace the aircraft despite deploying hitech radar and other gadgetsInvestigators still do not know why the airliner strayed so far off course after disappearing over the South China Sea between Malaysia and VietnamThe backgrounds of both passengers and crew have been scrutinised as officials considered hijacking sabotage pilot action or mechanical failure as possible causesSo far there is no official explanation for what might have happened