barring any snags or delays we should be seven hours into a new and critical phase for the search. six days after the last apparent encounter with pins from the jet s black boxes. the chief search coordinator called in the blue fin. that s the autonomous underwater vehicle, auv, that uses sonar to map the ocean floor. this is a painfully slow process. experts would have liked a few more pings. but it s likely the batteries have run out. the visual searches will probably end soon as well. but yesterday the same australian navy ship that deployed the pinger locator and the blue fin noticed an oil slick and picked up a couple of liters for testing. we don t know whether it s airplane related. we probably won t know for a few days. but the focus today on that blue fin is expected to cover 15 square miles in its first
developments. pinger locater has detected signals. the signals were picked up in the northern part of the search area by the australian ship, ocean shield, two distinct pinger returns detected which would be from the missing airliners to black boxes. still, as we said before, it could take days to confirm whether the sounds are indeed from flight 370. the chief search coordinator revealed those findings we have just mentioned a few hours ago. here are highlights from his press conference. today, i can report some very encouraged information which has unfolded over the last 24 hours. the towed pinger locater locaters deployed from the australian defense vessel, ocean shield has detected signals
sophisticated, high-tech equipment. but the devices are designed to be used once a debris field is located and is the search area is dramatically narrowed down. brian todd is here with more on this part of the story. so obviously, there are great limits to what this high-tech underwater equipment can do since they re not even sure they re looking in the right place. that s right, wolf. this equipment is very impressive. this towed pinger locater can go 20,000 feet below the surface, can detect the pinger from two miles away, but does have its limitations. still, here s what the chief search coordinator, air marshal angus houston said a few hours ago about the pinger locater. using the towed pinger locater from the united states navy, on australian defense vessel ocean shield, and a similar capability on hmsecho