great deal in the arrival of the hms echo. we were looking at a website called marinetraffic.com. a website this monitors vessels on the water in reel in almost real time. the website indicates the old shield has actually moved out of the search area and the hms echo is in the center of the search area. we don t know why. authorities aren t saying. the hms ecoecho is equipped with highly sensitive detection equipment and is capable of mapping the ocean floor. we ll bring you any further updates that we get on the search as we get them, errol. no confirmation yet. but it seems there s every reason to be confident that improvements are taking place, and they are close. erin mclaughlin live for us in perth. thank you. we also have new developments on another front of investigation. who uttered those last words from the cockpit, good night
it s also capable of mapping the sea floor. and interesting to note that in his statement, houston did not specify as to what the hms echo is going to be doing today. as far as we know, they are continuing to search, according to houston s statements, for more pings to narrow down the search field. talk to me about the flow of information. you re just outside the jacc. they have been giving on-camera updates at around earlier, around 11:00 a.m. local time where you are each day when there s a significant development. you say they only issued a statement today. prime minister abbott on his overseas tour even saying out loud, i m withhold something details until after i talk to xi jinping. is it likely that we could get another update later today as a way of the jacc not jumping in front of tony abbot speaking to xi jinping? reporter: if it s possible, angus houston in that statement this morning was very clear when
the fuselage is lying on the sea floor. the black boxes in the tail part, rear of the plane. so they would really have to find out through either photographs, by camera on the blue fin, or putting down a submersible that it can explore the wreckage and look at it and basically take photographs. and i don t think they re going to announce that they find the black box until they ve done that. we re a little bit further than we could do that. what could happen is as you mention in your news, the echo is surveying the area. and that would give us some blood idea of maybe how the wreck is laying or they could find it. they actually have to send the blue fin down, high-resolution data, take an actual photograph from the camera to be able to say here is where the black box
the hms echo, though, it s got a two-mile-wide coverage. it s not high resolution like the bluefin submersible, but way broader brush strokes, if you like, and much faster. we ve talked before about the silted bottom down there. perhaps meters of silt at the bottom. that would give off this echo from hms echo would give a soft signal back, if you like. now, that means that if there is a plane down there or wreckage down there, it would give off a hard signal. so it s obviously out there to sort of help now that we know those pings are in that area. going to go do broad brush strokes and see if they can found wreckage. meanwhile, the other ships are a few hundred miles from the west where experts think any debris from the suspected crash site would have drifted over the weeks since mh-370 disappeared, wolf. michael holmes on the scene for us in perth. thank you. we also have new compelling details of what may have happened in the first few hours
operation which now covers some 58,000 square kilometers. that is about 22,000 square miles. total of four suspected segales hasegal segal signals have been picked up in line with the estimated flight path. right now ships and aircraft are working the area of course looking for evidence of debris. all right, let s get the latest now on the search. our correspondent joins us live from perth, australia, aaron, after 3:00 in the afternoon in perth. we haven t had any update on search operations from air chief marshal angus houston. what do we know about any progress made on this day? hi, rosemary, well i spoke to spokesperson from the british ministry of defense just a short while ago. she tells me that the british vessel, the hms echo is in fact moving in the direction of the ocean shield in order to be able to support it in its