Page 43 - Ocean Surface News Today

Still, authorities caution there is a long way to go. australias top air accident investigator now saying the cost of a prolonged search could reach a quarter of a billion dollars if more private equipment is needed. miguel marquez joins us from perth with the latest. good morning, miguel. >> reporter: good morning there, carol. those discussions will be happening between all the countries involved. there is no indication that any country wants to give up this search. in fact, they are doubling ...

>> reporter: no timetable has been given yet. the seventh fleet -- u.s. navy seventh fleet, operating the bluefin 21 on board the "ocean shield," putting out a press statement saying that weather is a factor. its not in the water yet. important to note that that six hours involves some two hours of the bluefin 21 actually getting down to the ocean surface. it had two hours to search and two hours coming up. it was only searching the surface of the ocean for two hours. the data collected, the sev...

>> we have been trying to figure out what angus houston might be going to say. he usually picks his words carefully. he doesnt usually come out and say i have nothing to tell you. >> well, i suppose hes going to tell us what they have found with the pinger information. thats really the only news i would expect at this point. the only other possibility is that maybe they found some wreckage on the ocean surface. that was what i would expect him to say if he has news. he may simply be trying to ke...

Soon. the search on the ocean surface for signs of debris are going down. a search could be called off at any time. breaking news. sources tell cnn that 370s co-pilot had his cell phone on when the flight was midair. pamela brown brings us this development. what are officials telling you about the co-pilots cell phone use? >> were learning that malaysians have shared data with u.s. investigators indicating that the co-pile pots cell phone made contact with a cell tower about 250 miles away fro...

The latest clue in the hunt for 370 is an oil slick a few miles from where underwater pings were detected last week. analysis of the water sample will determine if the slick possibly, possibly came from the boeing 777. no wreckage has been located on the ocean surface. so now the search shifts to below the waves. lets bring in cnn analyst david soucie. and tim taylor, president of rv tiburon and an expert on rv submersib submersibles. the co-pilots cell phone had been activated while flying

Search, of course, theres the ocean surface, so youve got all the garbage we throw in our oceans which definitely throws an obstacles for that search, for that visual search at the surface. and down below that surface theres something called noise pollution. and manmade noise pollution is certainly a factor in all of this, as well as just the natural ambient noises that nature makes. >> manmade noise like what? >> low and mid-frequency sonar, for example, that have been known to enter fointerfer...

Theyre called sonobuoys. >> theyre a sensor package out of the aircraft. will deploy a hydro dols phone. >> once it hits the water surface it has saltd water switches that starts activating different deployments. everything in this canister starts to unwind. theres a bunch of gear in there that is packed in nicely. theres a radio antenna that talks to the aircraft so the buoy and the aircraft are constantly in communication. microphone is listening for signals on a very long string and they depl...

You know, i think the people heading up the search are reluctant to say we have the wreckage until they actually have eyes on it or virtual eyes on it. but as they build this case, the evidence grows and, more importantly, the box becomes a little bit smaller into which they decide to search and ultimately put on the bluefin device, the underwater vehicle that will go down and paint the surface with sonar. so its very encouraging with the weather getting worse and winter ko winter coming, this i...

Are in constant communication and the microphone, the hydrophone is listening below the canister. >> the australians got this batch from american manufacturers, sent a cargo plane to indiana to pick up more than 1,000 sonobuoys. the device was first deployed by the u.s. navy but this is one of the tools the navy has to look for and track enemy submarines so theyre under the ocean surface, dont have a radar signature and need to use sound in smart ways actively and passively to find them and then...

>> wolf, teams are stretching the boundaries of this technology and they have done it again. the latest signal came from something designed for maritime combat, not search and recovery. they are dropped out of a plane and descend below the surface, open up their payload and hunt for their target. these are not bombs or torpedos, they are called zosonobuoys. >> they deploy a hydrophone. >> a source tells cnn that sonobuoys were dropped from an australian pc-3 orion plane. >> it has saltwater swit...