‘Significant’ new lead in Malaysia plane search

Malaysian officials gained a “significant” new lead in the month-long search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 over the weekend, when investigators heard pings they believe could be coming from the airplane’s black boxes.

The sounds were heard by an Australian team that was searching the southern Indian Ocean.

{mosads}Malaysia’s Minister of Transport Hishammuddin Hussein said the pings have led investigators to believe they are close to find the missing plane’s data recorders.

“It has been 31 days since MH370 went missing,” Hishammuddin said. “As we enter this new week of the search operations, there has been a significant lead in the search for the missing aircraft. As stated by the Joint Agency Coordinating Centre in Perth earlier today, the towed pinger locator deployed from HMAS Ocean Shield has detected signals consistent with those emitted by aircraft black boxes.”

Investigators have been racing against the clock for locating the Malaysian Air flight because the batteries in its black boxes are set up to expire after about a month. The Malaysia Air flight was last seen on March 8, when it lost contact with air traffic controllers about an hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

The disappearance of the plane, which was a Boeing 777 that was carrying 239 passengers, has spawned a multi-national search that has lasted for more than four weeks.

Investigators have previously believed they found remnants of the plane floating in the Indian Ocean, but they have come up empty thus far.

The Malaysian transportation chief said Monday that the pings have raised hopes of finding the black boxes, but he cautioned that the sounds picked up by the Australian ship could also be a bust.

“While this may be a step closer towards finding MH370, there are still many steps to be taken before we can positively verify that these signals are from MH370,” Hishammuddin said.

Malaysian and Australia officials said last week that the missing airplane might never be found. Malaysian officials told the families of passengers who were on board the plane that they have found enough evidence to conclude it crashed into the Indian Ocean with no survivors.

Some relatives had held out hope that the plane had landed in an undisclosed location because officials have been unable to find any wreckage from a crash.

The disappearance of the Malaysia Air flight has baffled U.S. and international aviation experts and led to renewed calls for equipping airplanes with GPS tracking systems.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is assisting with the Malaysian search, has a plan to switch the U.S. aviation system from World War II-era radar technology that is currently in use to a satellite-based system known as NextGen.

The agency has had trouble winning funding for the NextGen program, which is projected to cost more than $20 billion, from Congress.