As the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 reaches the one-month mark, searchers are earnestly trying to find the block box in the South Indian Ocean. There may have been a breakthrough, as a Chinese ship reportedly detected a “pulse signal,” but officials have not confirmed the news.
The ship picked up a signal at 37.5 kHz, state news agency Xinhua reported. Anish Patel, president of pinger manufacturer Dukane Seacom, told CNN that the frequency is “the standard beacon frequency” for the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.
However, the signal has not been confirmed by officials. According to The Los Angeles Times, Malaysian and Australian officials, who are organizing the search off the coast of Perth, have not made any comments on the report. There’s been no confirmation that the signal is even linked to the missing flight.
The Boeing 777 has been missing since March 8 and had 239 people on board, with two-thirds of the passengers Chinese. It was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Families of the passengers have grown increasingly anxious, as Malaysian authorities have said that no one survived, but offered no hard evidence. They said that it went missing due to a deliberate act, but that’s it.
Malaysian authorities are putting together three special committees related to the plane’s disappearance, CNN reported. Transportation minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that one will help the families, another team will investigate the disappearance and a third will look into the psychological factors that may have lead to the disappearance. There will be representatives from Malaysia, Australia, China, the U.K., the U.S. and France on the committees.