Latest analysis possibly rules out two pings
Latest developments:
- Ocean Shield captain: Two of four ping detections possibly ruled out
Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:
Search sets to get tougher
The MH370 search team now "increasingly suspect" that not all of the electronic signals detected last month in the south Indian Ocean were from the MH370's black box.
Australian DefenceVessel Ocean Shield's captain and Australian naval Commander James Lybrand is quoted by Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as saying that based on latest acoustic analysis, it seems a little far-fetched that the four pings were picked up from the same source.
Two pings initially heard by a towed ping locator on April 5 were at 33.3 kHz frequency and another two were picked up on April 8, but were intermittent and at a frequency of around 27kHz.
Although both are much lower than the 37.5 kHz frequency black box beacons are designed to emit - the April 5 signals could still be plausible, he says, attributing the difference to possible weakening batteries and the vagaries of deep-sea conditions.
But "as far as frequency goes, between 33 kHz and 27 kHz is a pretty large jump," Lybrand says.
WSJ reports that experts meeting on the next phase was due to conclude on Wednesday ahead of a tender process to hire civilian contractors that will take another four to six weeks.
But with less pings to work with, the search operation looks to be tougher.
CNN on MH370 coverage: Audience has spoken
4:25pm: After coming under much flak and ridicule for its over-the-top coverage of the MH370 crisis, CNN finally explains why it keeps churning out news about the missing jetliner.
The reason? Simply put, CNN's worldwide president Jeff Zucker tells Mashable , people are tuning in.
CNN's use of data to track the habits of consumers online and on TV helped the outlet realise that the plane story had legs, Zucker says, adding that this alone convinced the network to keep the story on air longer than might seem intuitive to a news producer.
Zucker also answers to CNN's critics, which include former veteran CNN anchor Larry King, The Daily Show ’s Jon Stewart and recently, even US president Barack Obama, who joked about CNN's coverage during the annual White House correspondent dinner.
"I think that if people want to be critical of CNN for over-covering a story, that's totally fine with us," Zucker tells Mashable.
"Clearly, the audience has spoken and said that what CNN did was correct."
Questions remain but world's attention shifting
3:32pm: With almost nothing new to report as the search for MH370 enters a lull, UK's theguardian laments at the lack of serious world attention given to the search for the missing plane.
"While families continue to demand answers and action, there is a sense that the world has moved on. Publicly, governments vow to never stop searching, but the daily updates have ceased, and the Malaysian (acting) transport minister (Hishammuddin Hussein) is back to using his Twitter account to post selfies in his new glasses ( right, in picture )," theguardian says.
However, it quotes director of science and technology at the National Oceanography Centre, Professor Ian Wright, as saying in the least, "there's no longer a technical time pressure” for the search.
“But the acoustic pings [from the black box] are obviously more difficult to triangulate than they have thought. You could be spending a lot of time mapping in the wrong place.
"A better thing would be to consolidate all the data, get experts in the room and have a more considered approach for taking the search forward."
Hisham meets Australian Navy chief
3pm: Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein welcomes the visit of Royal Australian Navy Chief vice-admiral Ray Griggs in Kuala Lumpur and says that Malaysia-Australia ties have been strengthened by the MH370 incident.
Meanwhile, Griggs tweets that he had an "excellent meeting with Malaysia's Defence Ministry on MH370 and maritime sector challenges".
Following the meeting, Hishammuddin then signs a joint cabinet paper between Ministries of Defence, Transport and Foreign Affairs, all of which worked together to tackle the MH370 crisis.
On repeated demands by family members to be given satellite data used to calculate the plane's believed final resting place, Hishammuddin, who is also acting Transport Minister, says this can be done providing the expert panel feels doing so will not affect ongoing investigations, Channel News Asia reporter Sumisha Naidu tweets.
Can ICAO get agreement on new airline safety measures?
2:40pm: With two commercial aeroplanes lost at sea in five years, the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) meets this week to discuss flight tracking and other safety features.
However, Reuters reports that safety experts were sceptical of a solution. The issue - often a toss up affair between planemakers, airlines and pilots over costs - have not progressed much since Air France Flight 447 disappeared in 2009, and subsequently found over the course of two years.
Now that MH370 has gone without a trace, it report questions the chances of ICAO getting everyone to agree on new airline safety measures improve?
Read the full Reuters report here .
Search likely to remain in same area
10.58am: Despite the mounting pressure to do something differently, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is likely to resume its search in the same vicinity of the Indian Ocean as done last month, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.
Quoting unnamed officials, WSJ says that after a closed-door meeting between US, British and Australia experts in Canberra ends in middle of this week, the group is likely to call for more of the same deep sea probe based on four pings that could be from MH370's black box. Better tools are to be employed.
For now, there were no better clues, the report states.
France begins judicial investigations into MH370
10am: France has ordered a judicial investigation into MH370 for "involuntary homicide" as four French nationals are among the missing MH370's passengers. They are three students from the French school in Beijing, and one, a mother of two of the pupils.
According to an AFP report, French prosecutors were given the task last Wednesday as the Malaysian government has been "roundly criticised for the manner in which it responded to the crash and the way it conducted search operations."
Experts questioning Inmarsat's satellite data analysis have meanwhile gained traction on
CNN
and other media. In a widely circulated article, mathematicians have cast doubt on the British satellite company's conclusion over a month ago that MH370 landed in the south Indian Ocean.
After a nearly A$43 million (RM130 million) operation in the middle of the ocean found nothing, families of MH370 passengers and others are now also pressing for Inmarsat to give up its data for other experts to have a deeper look.
Background:
- The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200ER aircraft went missing not long after taking off from KL International Airport in the early hours of March 8, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers.
