No more signals have been
detected since Saturday's momentary jubilation aboard an Australian
navy ship some 1,100 miles (1,750 kilometers) northwest of Perth --
pulses consistent with those sent by a flight data recorder and cockpit
voice recorder, explained Angus Houston, head of the Australian-led
search effort. Nor has any wreckage been found from the Boeing
777-200ER.
This lack of new information makes searchers "more cautious," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. William Marks of the U.S. 7th Fleet.
"As hours pass," he said, "our optimism is fading away, ever so slightly."
Wednesday marks 33 days
since the jetliner mysteriously disappeared from radar screens, a
stretch marked by loads of speculation, lots of heartache from relatives
of the 239 people aboard the plane and few solid facts about what
happened.
It's also three days
since the date which the batteries powering the flight recorders'
locator beacons were certified to be working. Stored in a plane's tail,
they are designed to begin sending off distinct, high-pitched signals as
soon as they come in contact with water.
Authorities are still
listening, mindful the pulses could last a few days longer and that
sending in submersibles could ruin chances of hearing them again.
Retired Lt. Col. Michael Kay of the Royal Air Force told CNN the
batteries can operate up to 40 days.
"We need to continue ...
for several days right up to when the point at which there's absolutely
no doubt that the pinger batteries will have expired," said Houston.
Discovery of possible 'locator beacon' pulses gives hope
Wednesday's search
includes up to 11 military planes, four civilian aircraft as well as 14
ships -- three of which, Australia's Ocean Shield further north and the
British HMS Echo and Chinese Haixun 01 to the south -- will be focusing
underwater.
All told, everyone
involved will be scouring a 29,000-square-mile zone centered about 1,400
miles northwest of Perth, according to Australia's Joint Agency
Coordination Centre. That's large and
challenging, but still pales in comparison to the once nearly 3 million
miles, at sea and on land, the searchers were scouring for signs of the
lost aircraft a few weeks ago.
Kevin McEvoy, a New
Zealand air force commodore involved in the effort, noted that
authorities once "didn't even know which haystack" to look in for the
aircraft.
"I think we have got a
much clearer picture around the areas that we need to concentrate on,"
McEvoy told CNN's Erin Burnett from Auckland.
Authorities greatly
shrank that area after analyzing satellite data to determine Flight 370
had set off from Kuala Lumpur toward Beijing, turned around to go back
over the Malay Peninsula, then ended up in the southern Indian Ocean.
Why? No one really knows.
The best chance to
answer that question may rest wherever the plane -- and its so-called
black boxes, with their trove of information about the plane and its
movements -- now resides.
Search planes dispatched
day after day looking for evidence of the missing airliner -- a
floating wing, a seat cushion, anything -- thus far have come up empty.
The latest, greatest hopes have come from crews listening underwater for signs of Flight 370.
The first such possible
breakthrough came last Friday and Saturday, when a Chinese ship detected
pulses that may have been from the plane. No more have been heard
since.
According to McEvoy,
"the main focus" centers around the site of Saturday's discovery from
Australia's Ocean Shield. It used more advanced detection gear than that
aboard the Chinese vessel and was found some 375 miles away, leading
Houston to believe they are separate signals.
The first signal, detected by a towed pinger locator, persisted for more than two hours; a second went on for about 13 minutes.
"The audible signal
sounds to me just like an emergency locator beacon," Houston said. "We
are encouraged that we are very close to where we need to be."
Big decisions on search could be coming
That's why so much focus in recent days has been placed on locating the flight recorders.
Not that it will be
easy. Beyond the dwindling battery life, there's all the ocean to
contend with: The Ocean Shield signals were in water about 2.6 miles
deep, meaning a number of things could literally get in the way of or
otherwise disrupt the pulses.
Searchers' intent not to
roil the waters any further is why air and seaborne traffic in that
find area is being limited, and why there is no rush to put in
underwater drones to take photos.
"Until we have stopped the pinger search, we will not deploy the submersible," Houston said.
And it's not as if, if
more pulses are detected, they'll lead down in a straight line to the
flight recorders. As is, the pings that were heard could have emanated
from anywhere within a 5-mile radius, said Mary Schiavo, a former
inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Finding more signals
could narrow the search area. Without them, authorities could then start
the painstaking process of using side-scanning sonar to try to find the
aircraft on the ocean's bottom.
"I think we're in a very
critical stage of the search, and some big decisions are going to have
to be made in the next week or so," said Peter Goelz, former managing
director of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Meanwhile, the air
search continues. As McEvoy explained, this area is "slightly different"
than that being probed for pings because it is focused on surface
debris, which would have shifted over the past few weeks -- thanks in
part to a cyclone packing winds in excess of 160 mph that pushed through
two weeks ago.
So far, none of the
aircraft that have been sent out has found anything. And even if it is
narrowed, Wednesday's air search area is still roughly the size of South
Carolina.
As Wing Cmdr. Andy Scott of New Zealand stated: "It's a large task that's still ahead of us."
Pings without wreckage 'befuddling'
The absence of wreckage
near these detected signals leaves some skeptical, worried that the
Chinese and Australian ship's finds could be yet another false lead in
an investigation that's been full of them.
Acknowledging "a very
high-speed vertical impact" could explain the lack of aircraft remnants,
CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien said there's reason to be cautious.
"It's either the most extraordinary event, or those pings weren't real," O'Brien said. "It's somewhat befuddling."
Sarah Bajc, the partner
of American passenger Philip Wood, isn't convinced about anything. She
told CNN's Erin Burnett she thinks the plane was hijacked. Whether that
proves true, one thing she won't believe are the Malaysian officials
heading the investigation.
"All of us pretty well
agree that until there's the bulk of the plane, the bulk of the bodies
discovered, and a black box intact, we won't believe that it's final
evidence," Bajc said early Wednesday from Beijing. "... I don't think
the authorities have given us much confidence of their investigative
skills so far."
The lack of clarity makes it hard to "grieve properly and ... move on," -- something that she's not yet willing to do.
"I want to fight to find
him, in whatever form that ends up being," said Bajc, who is
coordinating with other passengers' kin to press for answers. "And I
think most of the families feel the same way."
Until they get answers, women and men like Steve Wang -- whose mother was on the Malaysia Airlines plane -- are clinging to hope while trying to hold themselves together.
"We're just going
through so many kinds of emotion," said Wang. "... Desperate, sad and
helpless -- something like that. Everything."
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