Malaysia Flight 370: New signal sounds 'just like' one from a plane's beacon

A pinger locator in the Indian Ocean has detected signals consistent with those emitted by a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder, the head of the Australian agency coordinating search operations said Monday, CNN reports. The sounds were heard at a depth of 4,500 meters (about 14,800 feet), retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said. "We've got a visual indication on a screen, and we've also got an audible signal. And the audible signal sounds to me just like an emergency locator beacon," Houston said. "We are encouraged that we are very close to where we need to be." But it could take days before officials can confirm whether the signals did indeed come from the plane, which fell off the radar on March 8 with 239 people on board. "In very deep oceanic water, nothing happens fast," Houston said. "I would ask all of you to treat this information cautiously and responsibly. ... We haven't found the aircraft yet." At least one investigator has described the search not as finding a needle in a haystack, but rather trying to find the haystack. "It's very exciting, very exciting," forensic audio expert Paul Ginsberg said Monday. "I think we have finally found the haystack." But some relatives of those on board haven't lost hope, despite Monday's news of the promising signals. "If the plane is there, its there. We can't change it," the husband of one passenger said. "But I am still hoping for a miracle to happen." But time could be running out in tracing the sounds. In a few hours or days, the pingers aboard the plane stop transmitting for good. The batteries inside the beacons, which are designed to start sending signals when a plane crashes into water, last about 30 days after the devices are activated. Monday marks the 31st day of the search. What happens after the Malaysian plane's pingers die? New flight details While searchers may be getting closer to the plane itself, a fresh mystery has emerged about what happened during the flight. The aircraft skirted Indonesian airspace as it went off the grid and veered off course, a senior Malaysian government source told CNN on Sunday. After reviewing radar track data from neighboring countries, officials have concluded that the plane curved north of Indonesia before turning south toward the southern Indian Ocean, the Malaysian source said. Whoever was flying the plane, the source said, could have been trying to avoid radar detection. But why? Like most details in the case that's baffled investigators ever since the plane dropped off Malaysian military radar, it depends on whom you ask. CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes cautioned against assuming a nefarious reason for steering the plane around Indonesia's airspace. "I think the plane's being intentionally flown there, but I think it's still a mystery as to why. ... I think they would probably guess they're not avoiding anybody's radar, because there's a lot of radar in the area," he said. "I think they're avoiding getting shot down or colliding with another airplane."

CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien said the new route includes designated waypoints that pilots and air traffic controllers use.

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