DAY 77

Latest developments:    

  • Scientists flay Abbott over premature black box announcement

 

  • Houston 'absolutely confident' search in the right area

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  • Experts still reviewing data for next phase of search

    • Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:

    Scientists continue to pour cold water over ping findings

    3pm: Acoustic scientists are accusing Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott of playing politics when he announced on April 11 that the location of MH370’s black boxes are known within a few kilometres.

    “As soon as I saw the frequency and the distance between the pings I knew it couldn’t be the aircraft pinger,” News Corp Australia quotes one of the scientists, who reportedly declined to be identified, as saying.

    The report states the four underwater signals were detected at a frequency that is “very different” from those made by black box pingers, and were also detected some 30 kilometres apart over four days.

    “Signals do pass through water in complicated ways and you can get unusual 'sound ducts’, but at those distances it is very unlikely,” another scientist says.

    The scientists reportedly claim that detailed analysis of the signals were not done before Abbott made his announcement and the report notes that the timing coincided with a number of domestic controversies that the Australian premier was facing.

    Expert review of data ongoing

    1 0am: The review of all data related to MH370 is still ongoing in Canberra, says the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston ( right ).

    Although he declines to comment on the findings of the review so far, the Australian news portal Crikey reports him as saying, he remains “absolutely convinced” the missing aircraft crashed in the Southern Indian Ocean.

    Experts from the US National Transportation Safety Board, UK’s Air Accident Investigation Branch, the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau, British satellite communications company Inmarsat, Boeing, and other agencies are involved in the review.

    They are supposed to pinpoint the missing aircraft’s probable crash site and ensure nothing is overlooked, and then help plan the next phase of search.

    The meeting started on May 7, with US broadcaster NBC at the time quoting an unnamed JACC official saying the review would take at least two weeks. It has been 16 days since the meeting started.

        

    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.

     

  • Authorities have determined that the plane intentionally turned back shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons and, based on satellite data, have estimated its last position to be in the south Indian Ocean.

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  • Australia leads the search in the south Indian Ocean. As of March 30, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is tasked with overseeing the operations, led by retired air marshal and former defence chief Angus Houston.

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  • The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 was deployed on April 14 to conduct an undersea search where the Australia Defence Vessel Ocean Shield had picked up two pings similar to black boxes on April 5 and two more on April 8 but failed to reacquire them again with the pinger locator.

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  • However, by April 28, with no sign of the wreckage, authorities announced the search will move on the next phase, which will focus on a larger and deeper area of the sea floor, while the aerial search is ceased.