and probably in the search so far, it s the it s probably the best information that we have had. the plane and its 239 passengers and crew, of course, have been missing for more than 30 days now. and time is running out on those black box ping batteries. they could already be out. we don t know. nbc s ian williams has more on the new challenges of the search from perth, australia. reporter: good day to you, chuck. this is being described as the most promising lead yet, but the search coordinator is urging caution. they are today working round the clock to try and reacquire the signal that was spotted twice over the weekend by the u.s. ping locater, which is being dragged along by an australian ship. now, if they can reacquire this sound and better pinpoint where it s coming from, they ll then send a submersible vehicle down to take a closer look at what s down there, to see if they can locate the black box or, indeed,
for more than two hours. now, these pings were picked up by the u.s. navy s ping locater. afterwards that ship turned around to retrace its course. unfortunately it has not heard anything more since. now, these signals were definitely consistent with a black box flight recorder. the head of the australian search operation describes as it the most promising lead so far. but, once again, he has cautioned against too much optimism, pointing out we still haven t found the aircraft and we still need further information. however, mamma malaysia s transport. remains positive there will be a development in the next few days if not hours, greta. roger, you have gotten any sort of indication how far away that these ships receiving these pings, detecting these pings might be? i realize the depth of the water has bearing on this. i assume we are closing in on the search field even though it s large one?
commercial airliner. they do have challenges of the depth. you ve been looking into that. that frequency 37.5 has been detected. we know of no natural sounds in the ocean that would send this out. take a look. depiction of the data recorder. that s the ping from the device, 37.5 khz. you see the battery capacity reaching the end of its life. it works to depths of 20,000 feet. the device, the ping locater towed along the ocean trying to locate this is one of multiple devices that s been able to locate it. the vessel that had two separate indications there was something emitting that signal down at depths. we look at what could be sending
month since the plane disappeared with 239 people on board. the plane s black box battery life only lasts 30 days. meaning it could run out any day now. at least 14 planes and 11 ships are searching the southern indian ocean today for any signs of the aircraft. two ships, including the ocean shield with a black box ping locater on board are also in the search area hoping to pick that up signal. problems for mazda. the recalling 460,002,006 models over spiders, get inside engines in a web to hose. pressure build up leading the fuel tank to crank. 2010 to 2012 models with 2.5-liter engines. did you make that up? is that real? did i not make that up. she read it with a bit of
explain what that is. autonomous underwater vehicle. side scan sonar or still camera. what it is designed to do it operates under the water and takes a map of the ocean bed. it s really looking for debris, small, large debris of what should be airplane parts. the towed ping locater ears listening for the ping and blue fin is like eyes? that s correct. it s making a sonar image or using a still camera to actually find debris or hopefully a black box. where is malaysia in all of this? we are working with australia. is malaysia in on it at this point? this is one of the great international efforts. there are oso many countries involved. we are getting excellent cooperation from all of those countries. it really shows that the international community can come together in a crisis like this. pull together and do what is best for quite a few grieving families. and once again, it s like, i at this point my