Page 2 - Hms Echo News Today

Have we learned, is there silt? is it mountainous? is it flat? what do we know about this area? >> well, i think this is an area that is new to man. we obviously have a great asset in the oceanographic vessel, "hms echo." thats the start of the oceanographic that can assist in the mapping of the bottom there. but on the symmetry that ive seen, its not sharply mountainous or anything. its more flat and almost rolling but we understand from other work that was done some years ago that that part of...

Also, "hms echo" is helping the "ocean shield." he said the air and surface search will be concluded in the next couple of days or so. i think he said the next two days and that they would have to consult with everyone else involved to figure out how to proceed. did i hear that correctly, michael holmes? >> yeah, you did, don. he said wreckage needs to be seen before theres any confirmation of the resting place. you know, those ships -- what you have is that smaller what he called a manageable a...

This is day 39 as a matter of fact. and still no sign of missing flight 370. and again, a news conference about to begin at the top of the hour. my guest joins me now here on cnn. and were talking about what to expect at that news conference. and really what to expect in the next phase of this search. and i want to go back to jeffrey thomas in perth where theyre holding that press conference. so just word of a prez conference, you also got word that nothing had been heard, nothing of the pingers...

With the cockpit voice recorder, youll get an even clearer picture of what happened. why did this happen. >> jeffrey in perth now. its good to have you here. do you know what we can expect to hear from this news conference? perth 1234? >> don, look, we havent had any word whatsoever. weve had the first announcement that theres been no acoustic events in the last 24 hours. and about an hour or so later, we got advice that angus houston is going to address the media at 12:00, which is about just a...

This is a very forbidding environment. its cold. just above freezing. its completely dark. and we really dont know much about the ocean floor here. you might say why not just drop that robotic sonar imaging device there and let it ride around and start mapping all of this? if you want the best performance out of something like this, youd like to get it as close to the right distance from the floor as possible. this is right at the range of its functioning level here, 2.5 miles down. they have to...

The search about this time every day wraps up, at least the aerial search. what is happening today? >> reporter: hi, victor. well, the search for the elusive pings is continuing. as far as we know the ocean shield and the british vessel the "hms echo" continue to comb the waters. efforts by air as well, surveillance planes trying to pick up any pings from the sonar buoys they have deployed out on to the waters. as far as we know its been silent since tuesday. authorities have long said they want...

The important part is in the preplanning and thats what they were trying to get together in the initial stages of looking for these pings. >> no doubt. >> looking, the example thats been shown than extraordinary. and were all getting some very interesting lessons in oceanographers and acoustic sounds. what were seeing at the moment in this very small search area, not the large one but the very confined one, were seeing the ocean shield go through with the pinger -- towed pinger locator. it does ...

Tony abbott, over the last couple of days expressing some level of confidence of finding these black boxes. but let me ask you this. how close are they now to finding the airliners flight recorders? >> reporter: we havent been given a specific timetable. yesterday the australian prime minister tony abbott saying that itll likely take some time for them to physically locate the black box. they have 2.8 miles of water to contend with. as you mentioned, he is confident, though. he said that they ar...

Lets discuss with our panel now which includes audio expert paul gensburg and jeffrey thomas, managing director of airlineratings.com and david galoo, fabien cousteau and that british guy, michael kay. jeffrey, i want to start with you first. if not now, when? seriously. many people are asking that. jeffrey? >> sorry, john. yeah, look, its a very good point. and one of the things that we possibly are under playing a little bit here is the role of "hms echo," the graphic ship because that is surv...

Prime minister and the head of the search, angus houston, believe are from the flight data recorders. the ocean shield still towing that ping locator on loan from the u.s. navy. also in that little tighter area, where they did get those pings, theres the british ship, the hms echo, which is an oceanographic ship, it has a two-mile wide beam, if you like that it can put down and try to get back information from the ground floor, and see if it can locate any wreckage. no luck so far. don, this is ...