has now arrive at the spot where the two pulse signals were picked up. on board the hms echo high detection gear. just north, just north-northeast of there, i should say, the australian ship ocean shield is continuing its investigations, trying to figure out the source of a curious, quote, acoustic event. and today another question is emerging. did the plane try to avoid indonesian airspace? a senior malaysian government source has come out with an explosive allegation that flight 370 apparently steered a suspicious course to avoid indonesian radar. and for the latest on the search, i want to go to perth, where the news conference is soon to be taking place, and that senior international correspondent matthew chance. so matthew, do you have any clues as to what this impromptu press briefing may be about? not really. i mean, i ve spoken to the press office there, and they ve said
there are two main areas of focus at the moment. the one is where the chinese vessel 24 hours ago announced that it had two acoustic events. it found two pings or pulses underneath the ocean in two separate locations, two kilometers apart over a time period. they sent that british ship, the hms echo in order to investigate that, to try and verify it because there has been no verification it s been linked in any way to the malaysian airliner there is a second area as well. that s the australian vessel, the ocean shield, very high-tech equipment there given to or lent to the australian navy by the u.s. military to tow behind it and to try and track down that pinger as well that would be located on top of the black box flight recorder and the cockpit voice recorder as well. now, that s an interesting vessel because it s been there over the course of the past 24 hours or so, longer than that, even. and it also recorded what it describes as an acoustic event.
he will just tell you in a press briefing, i don t have anything new. and when i do, i will come out and tell you. . no i think he has something to tell us. but he could either tell us that they have detected a signal and that it sounds promising, or that they have detected a signal and they have discounted it. but at least he is giving us an update. everybody knows they have detected a signal and everybody is wondering what they re doing about it. i don t see anything unusual about this press conference at all. but i m also not expecting any good news in particular. about the chinese ship operating down there, it is interesting to note that when the chinese ship did get the detection, it was relayed to the australians via chinese news agency and the chinese authorities, not directly to the australians, which indicates that the chinese ship was not operating directly under the australian search authority. and what is more, the reason why they maybe sent the echo is a, maybe they have
operation and cnn s international correspondent matthew chance. matthew, the ship hms echo now on the scene. but it won t be joined by the hms tireless submarine. tell us what is happening right now. yeah, well, that s because there are a number of different search areas, four search areas in fact, according to the british ministry of defense that are the focus of the ongoing multinational search operation at the moment. in two of those locations, they ve got actual acoustic events that they re investigating. one of those is where the hms echo is and where the chinese vessels that detected apparent pings or some kind of pulses coming out on the same frequency, the beacon on top of the black box flight recorder would use. and that s one area of focus of this multinational search. another area is about 300 nautical miles away where the australian vessel the ocean shield is using its high-tech equipment to investigate another
me just like an emergency locator beacon. reporter: search crews are cautiously optimistic. certainly we re jumping to conclusions here. we need to reacquire the signal to confirm that it is the aircraft. reporter: the task now? the ocean shield is trying to find the signal again and hoping for confirmation. if the ping is detected again, crews will launch this underwater drone. it can scan the ocean water and take photos of any potential debris. at the same time, 375 miles away, chinese ships and the british hms echo are trying to confirm pings that the chinese briefly detected on friday and saturday. an australian official says it s unlikely to be from the same source. it s not possible for sounds to travel latterly but it would be difficult near the surface of the ocean, for instance. all of this activity is happening around the arc where