Page 36 - Pinger News Today

So its instant. as soon as it hits the water, it starts pinging. >> it doesnt take a lot of water to activate. its designed that way. >> so if this were in an airplane, and hit the ocean, this would start immediately, this pinging sound? >> if it was not damaged in the incident. >> reporter: in perfect conditions the pingers pulse can travel as far as 2 1/2 nautical miles. ocean caverns and cliffs, even vegetation can get in the way limiting that distance, though. before any beacon is shipped fr...

Not possible. but in actual fact, we spoke to some oceanographers, some experts in this field here locally, and they say, yes, it is technically possible that they did, because of the ocean liars, the gradient, the temperatures, its technically possible they picked up the same ping from the black boxes, if thats what they turn out to be. indeed, yes, the answer is yes. >> mike, i imagine theres a lot of noise in the ocean. what other, if any other, natural sounds, could be confused for the pinge...

>> so those conflicting reports that we have out there and youve seen that in the media, of course. but at the end of the day, until there is no reason to be looking for those or there is every reason to believe that the batteries are still functioning and that they will be putting out a signal that we can depete. >> miles obrien has a question for you. >> i cannot recall an aviation incident where there was a pinger discovered before any shed of debris. this is extraordinary. give us a sense of...

It apparently is the pinger from, you know, a real -- the kind of pingers they put on black boxes, let me put it that way. >> is there a way to sort of estimate based on the depth of the water and perhaps the strength of the ping, is there a way to sort of narrow the field more scientifically than, you know, to at least get that whole sort of investigative field reduced? >> yeah. thats what they are doing right now, greta. as the navy commander explained, they pass over the area where they thoug...

Kilohertz. >> tom, what else could be making the noise that was detected for two-plus hours two days ago? what else could it have been, if not the black boxes? >> well, theres -- as i said, theres a lot of things that are in the marine space that emit, that put acoustic energy into the water at 33 kilohertz. probably the most common is a thing called a single beam echo sound. its used on ships to find the bottom. it is able to detect the bottom of the ocean very deep in the ocean. to do that, it...

Because it only lasts 30 days. they said theres a three to five day grace period so that was good news we may have a few extra days. they talked about the fact -- and they want to make this point -- just because they think they heard this sound from one of their pingers down toings it doesnt mean that the plane or pinger is right there. it radiates so widely. it could be far, far away. so they will have to narrow down the search area these search teams to try to fine it. >> i appreciate the demo...

Thats already daunting. rosa flores, cnn, narragansett bay, rhode island. >> rosa, thank you very much for that. that gives you some idea of just how difficult this search will be. my expert panel back with me right now. i want to start with you, paul. do you usually know a ping sound when you hear one, even at that high a frequency? >> well, there are signatures that are studied and under different conditions, and as we spoke earlier, if you can narrow down the variations in the transmission pa...

Hours straight means that the pinger was close to the center because its going at about one mile an hour, one knot per hour, and so you think about two hours youve gone two miles with it in the dome of where that pinger is radiating to. the fact that you were there for two hours or two miles would tell you in the epicenter or center of that pinging location could be in that six-mile radius. the fact that you were in that area for two miles, either you were higher, right in the center, or lower o...

30 days. but officials say they are going to continue searching. the "ocean shield" will continue to use that american-provided towed ping locator in an effort to pick up a signal until they are certain there is no possibility that that black box pinger is still working. john? >> erin, i understand they want other vessels to steer clear right now of the "ocean shield" to give this ship some space. why is that? >> reporter: thats right. those 14 other vessels that they have out there, theyre sear...

Hear if you put your head under water. but its not necessarily a ping. it is once per second. sounds like a bird chirping i know on my iphone if i have a lot of apps running im going to run down the battery. one or two, maybe pinged every two hours it might save on othe battery is that not the way it works. >> no, its designed to operate continuously. they might have lost the signal for a myriad of reason. the topography of the ocean floor. flight data recorder or pinger may be resting. a bunch ...