Flight 370: Search teams investigate sounds picked up in ocean

A British Royal Navy vessel is on its way to an area where a Chinese ship reported picking up electronic signals twice, once on Friday and again on Saturday, said Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating search operations, CNN reports. And the Australian naval ship Ocean Shield, which has highly sophisticated equipment, is pursuing "an acoustic noise" that it detected in a different area, Houston said. He said the detections were "an important and encouraging lead," but he cautioned that they be treated "carefully" as they haven't been verified as being related to Flight 370. Searchers hoping pings come from lost Malaysian airliner The reenergized search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will pick up again Sunday with Australian authorities urging people not to get their hopes up because a Chinese ship detected pings in the ocean. "Reports overnight that the Chinese ship, Haixun 01, has detected electronic pulse signals in the Indian Ocean related to MH370 cannot be verified at this point in time," Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a prepared statement released Sunday. Searchers are desperate for any clue about the airliner that disappeared nearly a month ago with 239 people on board. Up to 10 military planes, two civil aircraft and 13 ships will assist in Sunday's search for the airline. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) plans to search three separate areas Sunday about 2,000 kilometers (about 1,240 miles) northwest of Perth. That area totals about 216,000 square kilometers (83,000 square miles). Weather in the search area is expected to be good, with a cloud base of 2,500 feet and visibility greater than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the JACC said. On Saturday, Angus Houston, the chief coordinator of the JACC, said, "I have been advised that a series of sounds have been detected by a Chinese ship in the search area. "The characteristics reported are consistent with the aircraft black box," he said, adding that a number of white objects were sited about 56 miles (90 kilometers) away. "However, there is no confirmation at this stage that the signals and the objects are related to the missing aircraft," the retired air chief marshal said. Neither the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) nor the Australian Transport Safety Bureau can verify any connection to the missing aircraft, the statement said. The RCC in Australia has spoken to its counterpart in China and asked for any further relevant information, it said. "The deployment of RAAF assets to the area where the Chinese ship detected the sounds is being considered," he added, referring to the Royal Australian Air Force. Video on Chinese state-run CCTV shot Saturday shows crew members from the Haixun 01 boarding a small yellow dinghy and using what appears to be a handheld hydrophone. The three men on board lower the device into the water on a pole. The handheld ping-locating technology used by the Chinese ship is not as versatile as a U.S. Navy towed locator, which goes as deep as 20,000 feet, far from surface noise, according to experts. The U.S. Navy hydrophone -- or underwater microphone, is on board the Australian ship Ocean Shield, which recently joined the search for Flight 370. Details also at