Norway ship detects Malaysia flight 'signal'
The Local Norway - [email protected]
Published: 7 Apr, 2014 CET.
Updated: Mon 7 Apr 2014 11:23 CET
The Norwegian-built Ocean Shield defence vessel detected thee identical signals in the Indian Ocean consistent with transmissions from the black box flight recorder on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.
Ocean Shield, built two years ago at the Vard Soviknes shipyard in Sunnmøre under the name 'Skandi Bergen', is now a defence vessel working for the Australian navy. The ship has been dragging a "pinger locator" around a search area some 2,000 nautical miles west of Perth, Australia, as part of the efforts to find the missing flight MH370. "Today I can report some very encouraging information which has unfolded over the last 24 hours. The towed pinger locator deployed from the Australian vessel Ocean Shield has detected signals,” Angus Houston, the head of the Australian joint agency co-ordination centre, announced on Monday. "Significantly this would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.” The first time the signal was detected, the ship tracked it for two hours and 20 minutes, before losing contact. The second interception lasted 13 minutes. Hege Akselvoll, a spokesman for Vard, which was bought by Italy's Fincantieri last year, said that staff at the yard were ecstatic at the role played by their ship. "We are following the media about the ship here in the shipyard, and we are thrilled that it is very much Norwegian designed and manufactured equipment on Ocean Shield," he told Norway's Dagbladet newspaper. On Sunday, a Chinese patrol ship, Haixun 01, detected a pulse, briefly picking it up again 24 hours later, after which Ocean Shield detected a pulse 300 nautical miles from the the Chinese vessel. The search effort currently involves no fewer than nine military planes, three civilian planes and 14 ships. Another Norwegian ship, the St Petersburg, owned by Höegh Autoliners, was the first ship to make it to the search area on March 20th.
Comments
See Also
Ocean Shield, built two years ago at the Vard Soviknes shipyard in Sunnmøre under the name 'Skandi Bergen', is now a defence vessel working for the Australian navy.
The ship has been dragging a "pinger locator" around a search area some 2,000 nautical miles west of Perth, Australia, as part of the efforts to find the missing flight MH370.
"Today I can report some very encouraging information which has unfolded over the last 24 hours. The towed pinger locator deployed from the Australian vessel Ocean Shield has detected signals,” Angus Houston, the head of the Australian joint agency co-ordination centre, announced on Monday.
"Significantly this would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.”
The first time the signal was detected, the ship tracked it for two hours and 20 minutes, before losing contact. The second interception lasted 13 minutes.
Hege Akselvoll, a spokesman for Vard, which was bought by Italy's Fincantieri last year, said that staff at the yard were ecstatic at the role played by their ship.
"We are following the media about the ship here in the shipyard, and we are thrilled that it is very much Norwegian designed and manufactured equipment on Ocean Shield," he told Norway's Dagbladet newspaper.
On Sunday, a Chinese patrol ship, Haixun 01, detected a pulse, briefly picking it up again 24 hours later, after which Ocean Shield detected a pulse 300 nautical miles from the the Chinese vessel.
The search effort currently involves no fewer than nine military planes, three civilian planes and 14 ships.
Another Norwegian ship, the St Petersburg, owned by Höegh Autoliners, was the first ship to make it to the search area on March 20th.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.