PERTH, Australia – Ships scouring a remote stretch of water for the plane vanishing nearly a month ago detected three separate sounds over three days. A Chinese ship picked up an electronic pulsing signal on Friday and again on Saturday, and an Australian ship carrying sophisticated deep-sea acoustic equipment detected a signal in a different area Sunday, the head of the multinational search said.
The two black boxes contain flight data and cockpit voice recordings that could solve one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation: Who or what caused Flight 370 to veer radically off course and vanish March 8?
But there were questions about whether any of the sounds were the breakthrough searchers are desperately seeking or just another dead end in a hunt seemingly full of them, with experts expressing doubt the equipment aboard the Chinese ship was capable of picking up signals from the black boxes.
Searchers are racing against time to find the voice and data recorders. The devices emit “pings,” so they can be more easily found – but the batteries last only about a month.
