Chinese ship hears a "ping"

[Mollie the cat]

A Chinese ship is reported to have heard a ping in the Indian ocean, the frequency is the same as the black box gives out. Lets hope this is not false hope for all the poor relatives. This is not confirmed.

[puppylover]

Lets hope it is. Time is running out to locate the box.

Cannot imagine what the poor relatives must be going through

[Mollie the cat]

I agree, hope this is not another false dawn for all involved. If this is true it could be the break those involved in the search are looking for. Very strange circumstances, no sign after almost a month?

[Philoz]

The big problem is, that apparently the black boxes only 'ping' for around 30 days.
And the search is 28days down the line.
Lets hope they find it and give the relatives some closure.

[Owl Lady]

Every thing crossed that they find it in time!!

[Jonnie]

The ping has a design criteria of 30 days, these will be in the harshest possible environment. Admittedly a few miles down in the ocean is pretty harsh but probably not as harsh as say middle of the arctic mid winter. There will also be some "safety margin" planned in so the battery will not instantly shut down bang on 30 days. My money is on 45-60 days so hopefully that will give some time. Other than that is is a needle in a haystack. I think the future of the whole black box concept will be live streaming of the info the black boxes receive a sort of continuance of the engine info Rolls Royce can currently get and this will probably start to happen fairly quickly after this.

[TRNCVaughan]

The ping has a design criteria of 30 days, these will be in the harshest possible environment. Admittedly a few miles down in the ocean is pretty harsh but probably not as harsh as say middle of the arctic mid winter. There will also be some "safety margin" planned in so the battery will not instantly shut down bang on 30 days. My money is on 45-60 days so hopefully that will give some time. Other than that is is a needle in a haystack. I think the future of the whole black box concept will be live streaming of the info the black boxes receive a sort of continuance of the engine info Rolls Royce can currently get and this will probably start to happen fairly quickly after this.

If the pulse repetition frequency was, say, halved after 20 days, battery life would be extended considerably. I understand the prf is about 1p/sec.