Ship hunting for Malaysia jet detects signal

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. But the agency's head, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said they "cannot verify any connection" at this stage between the signals and Malaysia Airlines MH370 Flight, which disappeared on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. 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, according to AP.