KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — Shortly after one of its experts said the four ping signals at the centre of the search for MH370 had not come from the aircraft, another spokesman from the US Navy backtracked on the observation, calling it “speculative and premature”.
According to foreign media reports, Chris Johnson, a spokesman for the US Navy, said work to determine the accuracy of the information is still ongoing and will be released when available.
In a statement on Sydney Morning Herald, Johnson said the US Navy would “defer to the Australians, as the lead in the search effort, to make additional information known at the appropriate time”.
“Regarding the news that was reported earlier, Mike Dean’s comments today were speculative and premature, as we continue to work with our partners to more thoroughly understand the data acquired by the Towed Pinger Locator,” he was quoted saying in the statement, which was also carried by NBC News.
Yesterday, US Navy’s deputy director of ocean engineering Michael Dean caused shockwaves in the media when he reportedly told CNN that the four pings that led to the frantic search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean are no longer believed to have come from the plane’s black boxes.
Instead, Dean claimed it is now widely believed that the signals picked up by the Towed Pinger Locator (TPL) had come from some other man-made source not related to MH370.
“Our best theory at this point is that (the pings were) likely some sound produced by the ship ... or within the electronics of the Towed Pinger Locator,” Dean was quoted saying in a Reuters report this morning.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft went missing shortly after departing Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing on March 8 and remains missing despite an international search involving over two dozen countries.
The Beijing-bound plane was ferrying 239 people on board.
It was detailed analysis of satellite and radar data that led experts to believe that MH370 had gone down in the southern Indian Ocean, a theory that at first did not sit well with the families of those aboard the ill-fated jetliner as it showed a drastic diversion to the plane’s original flight path.
But the acoustic handshakes or pings picked up by the US Navy’s TPL on at least four occasions from the depths of the wild ocean had the authorities convinced that they were looking in the right location.
Expert analysis of the first two signals by Australia’s Joint Acoustic Analysis Centre also showed that the transmission was not of natural original and was likely sourced from specific electronic equipment.
The pulses were registered at a 33.331 kHz frequency, which is consistent with transmissions that would come from the aircraft’s recorders, according to retired Australian air force marshal Angus Houston, who is leading search teams in the Indian Ocean.
They were “distinct and clear”, he said in a press conference in early April, and had consistently pulsed at a 1.106 second interval.
According to US Navy Commander William J. Marks on April 10, the second set of “pings” picked up were just 10 to 15 kilometres away from the first set, which is a relatively large search area but still much smaller than before.
“If we can nail that down... that’s the best course of action,” he said.
