Officials on Sunday were trying to confirm whether a “pulse signal” reportedly

Officials on Sunday were trying to confirm whether a “pulse signal” reportedly picked up by a Chinese ship in the Indian Ocean came from the missing Malaysian jetliner.

The Australian agency coordinating the search for the missing plane said that the electronic pulse signals reportedly detected by the Chinese ship are consistent with those of an aircraft black box.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported late Saturday that a Chinese ship that is part of the search effort detected a “pulse signal” at 37.5 kilohertz (cycles per second) — the same frequency emitted by flight data recorders — in southern Indian Ocean waters. Xinhua, however, said it had not yet been determined whether the signal was related to the missing plane, citing the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center.

Malaysia’s civil aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, confirmed the frequency emitted by Flight 370’s black boxes were 37.5 kilohertz.

It was not immediately clear if the report of pulse signal being picked up helped to determine the areas to be searched on Sunday.

China has nine ships and eight planes in the southern Indian Ocean looking for the lost flight, according to an article on the China Maritime Rescue Center’s website. The Haixun01, which Xinhua reported was the ship that detected the pulse signal, is equipped with sophisticated search equipment including underwater robots, an underwater sonar locator, and a black box locator, the article said.

There are many clicks, buzzes and other sounds in the ocean from animals, but the 37.5 kilohertz pulse was selected for underwater locator beacons on black boxes because there is nothing else in the sea that would naturally make that sound, said William Waldock, an expert on search and rescue who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

Source www.yahoo.com