Signal from Flight MH370’s black box ‘heard’

Editor's note: A Chinese patrol ship looking for signs of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean detected Saturday a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5 kHz, which was "basically confirmed" as the signal from the missing flight.

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11:49 pm: That concludes this live blog. Thank you for staying with us.

11:47 pm: If the black box of the missing flight MH370 is located, a deep submergence robot will be deployed for its salvage. When the wreckage of the Air France Flight 447 was located two years after the airliner had crashed 4,000 meters deep into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, nuclear submarines and deep submergence robots were also used. Consequently, the wreckage was pulled out by the U.S. Remora6000 Deep Submergence Robot.

11:46 pm: The Chinese search vessel is yet to compare its record of the signal's waveform with the Boeing factory's recorded configuration of the missing B-777 (product serial number 9M-MRO) to give out a final confirmation whether or not the signal came from MH370.

11:45 pm: Aviation experts have noted each aircraft is configured to emit the 37.5 kHz signal with a different waveform, necessary to distinguish one aircraft fromanother in case an air crash should involve more than one plane.

11:44 pm: As the search enters its 28th day, soon before the black box's battery is expected to die, the discovery has matched speculations by aerial search crews regardingthe location of the signal source.

11:43 pm: To compare the pulse signal, especially its waveform, with the vessel's previous finding — not strong enough to be recorded — is now a top priority for theChinese search team.

11:12 pm: Here's a picture posted on the Jiefang Daily website of search teams listening for a signal earlier.

11:06 pm: IZ Reloaded @izreloadedFollow

Map shows location where pulse signal was detected by Haixun 01. Signal not confirmed yet to be from#MH370.

10: 57 pm: According to CNN, the cockpit conversation recording of the flight has been played to friends of the pilot and first officer, as well as to other pilots, in order to identify who was speaking, a source close to the investigation said Saturday. But the voices have not been identified, the source said. The recording was not played to the families of the pilot and first officer, the source said.

10:43 pm: Why is a ‘black box’ orange?

The original flight recorders were painted black but the colour was changed to orange to make them easier to find by investigators The flight data recorder records a stream of flight information The cockpit voice recorder stores conversations and other noises made in the cockpit .

10:36 pm Chinese news portal Sina reported that the signal with a frequency of 37.5 kHz received by the Haixun 01 is highly unlikely to have come from any marine life such as whales, as their frequencies range between 15Hz and 20Hz, or dolphins, whose ultra sonic waves span from 200kHz to 350kHz. Additionally, marine life frequencies rarely change.

10:27 pm: Radar expert Professor David Stupples said, "My worry is the range. If this is in 2,000-3,000 metres of water, the range of the pinger is one to two kilometres at best.

"My recommendation would be to move the ships with the pinger locators very much closer to this, first of all to confirm this is the signal, and then two or three ships around it to do triangulation to fix the location."

10: 17 pm: From Sydney Morning Herald: Australian Defence Minister David Johnston urged caution following a number of false leads in what has been an "emotional roller coaster" for those affected by the MH370 tragedy. I have not had a chance to get to the bottom of this but can I tell you this is not the first time we’ve had something that has turned out to be very disappointing," he told ABC24. "There's a huge chance of false positives here."

10: 13 pm: Xinhua News Agnecy reported that Malaysian Minister of Defense and acting Minister of Transport Hishammuddin Hussein said Saturday in a press conference that the Malaysian government had established three ministerial committees to streamline and strengthen their work on the missing plane incident.

10:11 pm: From Xinhua News Agency: White floating objects were spotted Saturday by a Chinese military aircraft in remote southern Indian Ocean west of Perth, Chinese military sources said.

The crew of a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane spotted numerous white floating objects in about 20 minutes starting from 11:05 local time and took pictures of them.

10:02 pm: Sources said they have notified the Malaysian government of the reports about Chinese vessel picking up the pulse signal which might be coming from the missing flight MH370, adding they were currently confirming this information with the Chinese government. Yet the sources added they were unable to confirm any further details due to the lack of necessary information.

9:57 pm:

9:55 pm: The signal was first heard by three crew members on the Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 yesterday. The signal, however, was not recorded as it came out of the blue. A pulse signal lasting for one and half minutes was heard at 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Whether the signal is related to the missing flight MH370 is yet to be confirmed.

9:42 pm: Commenting on the signal detected by the Chinese ship, CNN aviation analyst David Soucie said, "This is a pinger. I’ve been doing this a lot of years, and I can't think of anything else it could be."

9:31 pm: Black box is the collective name of two flight recorders on an aircraft – flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). Flight data recorder is employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters. Cockpit voice recorder is used to record conversation in the cockpit, radio telecommunication between the crew and others, such as air traffic control.

The black box is not actually in black colour but kept inside orange-colour boxes, tough enough to withstand an air crash, so that investigators are able to retrieve the critical data kept in the devices.

9:29 pm: Equipped with helicopters, underwater robot, black box searching machine, side scan sonar and marine magnetometer, Haixun 01 has joined the searching and rescue mission of the missing flight MH370. Launched in 2013, the ship is the largest and the first public service vessel with the functions both capable of maritime control and rescue.

9:23 pm: CNN reported that the signal reported — 37.5 kHz — "is the standard beacon frequency" for the plane's cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, said Anish Patel, president of pinger manufacturer Dukane Seacom.

9:08 pm: China's State Maritime Rescue Center just announced that the signal heard by Haixun 01 is yet to be confirmed.

8:58 pm: Wei Liang, the second officer of the Haixun 01, told Xinmin Evening News that the signal detected by his ship was the same as the sound sample provided by Boeing after matching.

8:51 pm: Xinmin Evening News said the Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 "basically confirmed" the pulse signal is from missing flight MH370.

8:47 pm: The race is on to find the missing Boeing 777's locator pingers before their batteries expire.

8:44 pm: Chinese military expert Yin Zhuo said there's a ‘high possibility’ that the signal detected by Chinese vessel Haixun 01 is from missing flight MH370.

8:35 pm: Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01, searching for the missingMalaysian passenger jet MH370, detected a pulse signal with a frequency of37.5 kHz per second in about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude in the southern Indian Ocean Saturday. Read more.

8:30 pm: Good evening and welcome to our live coverage on the search for missing MH370.

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