pings detected by the ocean shield ship were actually at 33.3 kilohertz. that s a lower frequency than 37.5 kilohertz. does this mean this can t be the plane or is there some other explanation and it still could be? it definitely still could be. what you have with the pinger frequency can be affected by temperature of the water, the depth, the pressure, the current and actually the battery life and actual orientation of the pinger on the floor. all those could affect it. so definitely could be. chris, just to follow. we were told that the batteries on these beacons would be out of juice by now, they only last 30 days, obviously it s been 32. how could that explain the change in frequency and do these batteries ever last longer than 30 days? well the batteries are required to last 30 days even if they are aged or older batteries in there craft.
you re sure? i m positive. you can see how that does to it. i ll turn it down a little bit so we can talk. the frequency is 37.5. that s the standard frequency. why was that chosen? this is an actual pinger like in the plane, as i said. 37.5 kilohertz. that s a frequency that not many things in nature makes that frequency. therefore, it s going to be pretty quiet. the ocean is very noisy. sounds travels much better through water than air because it s a denser median. that means the sound can travel further. the downside is that everything that s making noise t in the ocean all piles up. again, this is the device. this is the little thing that they re so desperately searching for. tyiny little thing. it looks like a salt shaker. we ve talked about this technology. we want to just show it to.
captain tim taylor is a specialist and president of subsea service. steve wallace is former director of federal aviation administration office of accident investigation. miles o berry scene a cnn aviation analyst. gentlemen thanks for being here. tim i want to start with you. we know this frequency came in at 33.3 kilohertz lower than the standard 37.5. does that rule out that this is possibly from the black boxes? no not necessarily. the battery strength water is a very diffuse medium and full of layers of temperature and pressure gradients that can distort and reflect this, so i think that it is in the range. these manufacturers always say that they are plus or minus on the range as well so not always right dead on. and if you factor all that in
the original immarcet pings. it s the seventh recalculation used by bringing in more evidence on the radar tracking of this aeroplane. and the location is exactly on this track that the ships were told to go and have a look at. so there s some supporting evidence that, yes, they are the black boxes. we listened to this press conference live from angus houston, paul. you were optimistic about this, but now cnn is hearing that the frequency detected was 33.3 kilohertz, not 37.5. do you still believe that these are, in fact, the pingers, and is it an exact match? is 33 that close to 37? okay, we re talking about 10%. and we had a discussion this evening before air about the effects of temperature gradients on the transmission of different
that underwater autonomous vehicle, it would be a very, very, very long time before they could verify or find any sort of wreckage. christine? tell us about the difference in the signal strengths. is that casting any doubt on their findings? reporter: well, the signal that they detected is a total of 33.2 kilohertz, and they re expected to detect a signal of 37.5. houston addressing that at the press conference earlier today, saying that that doesn t necessarily diminish these results, given the conditions out on these vast, deep ocean waters, some 2.8 miles deep. sound can do funny things. and given the fact that the battery life is set to expire, all factors that could affect the signal. so, there s still hope, and they re saying this is at the moment their most promising lead. christine? erin for us in perth, thank you. as for malaysia airlines, officials not talking about what they think happened on board the