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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370`s search: As it happened on Sunday
It has not yet been confirmed if the pulse signal detected by a Chinese ship was emanated by the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, said the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).
The missing Malaysian jet was intentionally flown along a route to avoid being detected by radars, a CNN report said.
Flight MH370 is said to have flown around Indonesia airspace after getting off Malaysian military radar, a Malaysian government official told CNN.
02:20 pm: Chinese passengers` families waiting for black box ping verification
As a Chinese ship reignited hope in the search for the missing plane, the families of the Chinese passengers on board the ill-fated plane were avidly waiting for the confirmation of the electronic signal that could possibly be from the MH370, reported the CCTV news.
12:20 pm: `Plane was flying faster than thought`
Retired Australian Air Force Marshal Angus Houston said that the Flight path data had been reviewed and corrected. He added that the new flight path data suggests that the plane was flying higher than thought.
11:00 am: Frantic search for black box as time running out
As the clock keeps ticking on the search mission for locating the black box, two ships with capability to capture the flight data recorders` pings have been sent in the search area.
JACC chief Angus Houston said that to locate the black box, Australian navy ship Ocean Shield and British navy`s HMS Echo, both are en route the search area.
While the Australian naval vessel is equipped with a US Navy-supplied towed pinger locator, British HMS Echo has on board an underwater search gear.
10:40 am: Hopeful but by no means certain: Aus PM on Chinese ping detection
Although expressing hope hat he newly detected electronic signals could be a step ahead in the investigation, Australian PM Tony Abbot said that "by no means" the investigators could be certain about the new development being connected to MH370.
Re-emphasizing the extent of difficulty involved in the search, Abbot said, "This is the most difficult search in human history. We are searching for an aircraft which is at the bottom of a very deep ocean and it is a very, very wide search area".
"We need to be very careful about coming to hard and fast conclusions too soon," said Abbot in Tokyo where he is on a visit.
10:10 am: China detected the signal again for 90 seconds, 2km away
Giving more details about the signals, JACC chief Mr Houston said, that China had again detected the pulse for 90 seconds within 24 hours of first picking up a signal in the search area 2km away from where the first ping was heard.
"On Saturday afternoon Perth time, there was another acoustic detection less than 2 km (1.2 miles) from the original," he said.
9:50 am: Pulse signal detection "an encouraging lead"
JACC chief Angus Houston said that the Chinese ship`s detection of the "äcoustic" noise (which is said to be consistent with the frequency of an aircraft black box) is an "important an encouraging lead".
However, the electronic signals were still unverified and it was not yet clear if they were linked to MH370, said retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said.
Houston added that the latest clues were unverified "until such time as we can provide an unequivocal determination".
"We are working in a very big ocean and within a very large search area, and so far since the aircraft went missing we have had very few leads which allow us to narrow the search area," he said.
9:30 am: JACC holding press conference
The Joint agency coordinating the search operations is holding a presser at Pearce Air Base near Perth to brief the reporters about the latest ping detected by a Chinese ship.
9:05 am JACC yet to confirm if detected pulse signal came from MH370
It has not yet been confirmed if the pulse signal detected by a Chinese ship was emanated by the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, said the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).
According to Barnama news agency, JACC chief Angus Houston said that the pulse signal detected by Chinese ship Haixun 01 "could not be verified at this point of time".
Though he said that the signal detected of frequency 37.5 Hz was in consistence with an aircraft black box, but it was not yet clear if it was linked to Malaysian jet.
8:30 am: Search resumes after new clue
The search for the plane continued on Sunday with 10 military planes, two civil jets and 13 ships involved in the hunt for flight MH370, according to the Joint Agency Coordination Center.
With just a day left before the plane`s black box batteries are expected to expire, the investigators are racing against time to locate the flight data recorders. Fortunately the weather is expected to be supportive and visibility is said to be good for today`s search operations.
Today`s search area has been adjusted about 300 km farther from Perth compared to yesterday. The ships and planes will today scour an area spanning approximately 216,000 square km, about 2,000 km northwest of Perth.
As the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet entered its most crucial phase, when there are just 48 hours left for the black box signals to start fading; Chinese ship Haixun 01 has detected what might be coming from MH370.
The Chinese ship claims to have detected a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz per second in southern Indian Ocean waters around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, a Xinhua report said.