Officials in the nearly month-long search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are focusing their attention in the southern Indian Ocean after a Chinese ship reportedly detected two pings that might be coming from black boxes.
Fox News reports crews are looking at an area nearly 1,000 miles northwest of Perth, where a Chinese ship detected two pings on Friday and Saturday.
And according to the BBC, an Australian ship also detected a third ping in another part of the ocean Sunday morning. Officials say they're taking all the reported pings very seriously.
"The head of the search effort said the detections are encouraging, but pointed out they have not been verified as being related." (Via CNN)
Al Jazeera notes, though, the frequency coming from the pings is similar to the frequency transmitted by the black boxes — which has officials cautious of jumping to conclusions.
And when it comes to the black boxes, time is running out to find them.
The batteries in the black boxes only have a few days left until they're expected to die — meaning they won't transmit any more signals after that point. (Via ABC)
Not only is time against searchers, so is the rugged terrain underwater. According to The Telegraph, the area where the Chinese ship reportedly found pings is nearly three miles deep, with 8,000-foot-tall mountain ranges.
A former NTSB investigator told ABC if the missing black boxes have strong batteries, they could transmit signals for up to another week.
