Australian submarine crews began searching the Indian Ocean early Tuesday in response to faint pings believed to be coming from the black box that was aboard lost Mayalsian Airlines plane MH370.
International media report that Australian divers are hunting for parts of the missing plane that went missing with 239 passengers while flying on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
An Ocean Shield ship picked up a signal twice, according to reports from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). One of the signals lasted for more than two hours, according to retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is leading the search.
There are typically two black box flight recorders located at the rear of the plane. One is a cockpit voice recorder, the other a data recorder. Together they store the information needed to figure out what happened aboard the aircraft before it disappeared. The black boxes also send out “pings” for an extended period of time following a crash so they can be retrieved.
However, the batteries on the black boxes may be running low, and it is feared the beacons may be weakening, adding a new sense of urgency to the search.