On Monday, Australian officials described the latest pings detected in the search for Malaysia Flight 370 as their best lead so far. But since then, search crews have failed to relocate them. (Via U.S. Navy )
"There have been no further contacts with any transmission and we need to continue that for several days." (Via CNN)
Over the weekend, search crews picked up signals using a towed pinger locator deployed on the Australian vessel Ocean Shield. Those pings, they said, were consistent with the type of signals that would have been sent out from an airplane's voice and data recorders. (Via U.S. Navy, ITN)
The next phase of the search will involve this unmanned submarine called the Bluefin 21. It uses sonar to detect debris on the ocean floor and is equipped with video cameras. (Via Bluefin Robotics)
Problem is, search crews haven't picked up any more pings since Sunday. Now, 14 planes and 14 ships are searching an area in the Indian Ocean about the size of New Mexico.
And officials are describing the search as a race against the clock. The batteries that power the pingers only last about 30 days. It’s now been 32 days since the MH370 disappeared.
If the batteries do expire, experts say search crews are really only left with one option — scouring the ocean floor inch by inch. And that’s a process that could take years.
“It's literally crawling along the bottom of the ocean, so it's going to take a long, long time.” (Via BBC)
For some perspective, it took two years to find the flight recorders from Air France Flight 447's crash in 2009.
