AOL: … CNN said authorities now almost universally believe the pings did not come from the onboard data or cockpit voice recorders, but instead came from some other man-made source unrelated to the jetliner that disappeared on March 8, according to Michael Dean, the U.S. Navy’s deputy director of ocean engineering.
“Our best theory at this point is that (the pings were) likely some sound produced by the ship … or within theelectronics of the Towed Pinger Locator,” Dean said.
The discovery of the pings on April 5 and 8 was hailed as a significant breakthrough but no further promising signals were heard before the expiry of the batteries on the black boxes’ locator beacons.
A scan of the area around the pings with an unnamed submarine failed to find any sign of wreckage and no debris linked to the plane has ever been picked up despite the most extensive and expensive search effort in aviation history…. (more)
EDITOR: While on a cruise a week ago, we met over dinner a recently retired Australian aviation consultant and his wife.
When we asked if he had any views about the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disaster, he told us the cause of the crash was the same as one that had occurred a decade earlier with a Malaysian airline. The pilot had committed suicide, taking with him a plane load of passengers.
He said in both cases authorities found the pilots to have been very troubled.
