Page 5 - Pinger News Today

Answers, but it is extraordinary to me, you know why are we relying on these pingers after all these years with the technology we have? we know when air france 447, they went right over the wreckage. in the time frame when the pingers should have been working and they heard nothing. we think they failed as david soucie pointed out. obviously, the pinger is doing no good with mh 370 and in this case no black boxes yet. we have to figure out a way to get some of this information, some of this tele...

Really, we dont know if the plane hit the water in one piece. and then broke up upon impact. or it broke up upon hitting the bottom of the sea. so theres a lot of questions still. >> let me get into the black box you just brought up for a moment and go to sean. sean, more than three weeks left on the battery there on that pinger on the black box. with the divers not being able to go in. aircraft being called back and the sloshing there of the shallow water, do you think its going to be a race ag...

The critical black boxes from airasia flight 8501. the bat eye ares are designed to last a month but in some cases can actually last longer. they will fade out, not abruptly before they shut off. joining me now is the vice president of teledyne systems. good to see you. are you confident, 23 days life typical battery life of those pingers, are you confident that those searchers will find the black boxes well before that time? >> well there are a couple of things going on. im quite confident for ...

Pingers which send out signals under water. its called the underwater locator beacon in fact on this image. miguel marquez sat down with an expert to find out what it will sound like under water. >> reporter: the search for airasia 8501 narrowing the hunt on for a tiny signal in a turbulent sea. minute pings from a device attached to the flight data recorder. >> a pinger has a specific pulse. it has -- comes at a specific interval and a specific frequency. >> correct. >> reporter: but still hard...

First though the technology that it takes to find the black boxes, miguel marquez has that story. >> reporter: the search for air asha 8501. a pings from the flight data recorder. a pinger has a specific pulse. it comes at a specific interval and frequency. >> correct. >> but still hard to find. >> yes, it is. >> reporter: forensic audio expert paul ginsburg shows what it would sound like with any competing sounds. but said there is plenty keeping for attention at the bottom of the sea. >> a sch...

And i can discuss, but we do appreciate you joining us. jeffrey thomas from perth. >> pleasure. well time is ticking away on those batteries, as you know in those black box pingers. if they do get to the 5irarea of the data recorders and do get them that will be absolutely critical. here with more on whats in those recorders and what valuable information they hold is miguel marquez. >> reporter: the search for airasia 8501 narrowing. the hunt on for a tiny signal in a turbulent sea. new pings ...

So david, i mean what do you think? do you think that -- is this even an issue, the battery power and the pinger or are you convinced that a lot of debris has been recovered or some debris has been recovered that eventually this is going to be found -- the fuselage will be found by searchers pretty quickly? >> its still a very important piece because of the fact that even once they find the main part of the aircraft or the tail of the aircraft these boxes are twisted and mangled in amongst -- al...

Wave or waves hit it before the people on board could get out and thats what ultimately sank it. i want to bring back les and david to weigh in on this. this minister one of the reasons he has come up with this theory is because the pinger or one of the alarms didnt go off thats designed to go off on impact if you crash into the sea and they didnt get any indication of that so he is saying that might lend itself to the idea that there was a soft or controlled landing. >> hes referring to the dec...

Miles away from the wreckage. it could even be conceivably be on dryland. this is a very important development. heather: you talk about the ping errant ability to trace that. time is of the essence and also the debris itself as we go day by day and the weather conditions deny access to that area. the debris is being spread across a wider area as well. >> some off it is being found 100 miles away from the last reported point of the aircraft. these are the old pinger batteries. right now they have...

Those so-called black boxes only have about 25 days of power left. for more on the search and recovery, lets bring in mary schiavo, former inspector general for the faa, david soucie and peter goelz, former managing director of the ntsb safety board. mary, ill start with you this time. talk about the challenges inherent in finding a black box. why havent they found a black box yet? >> well, first and foremost, its just the condition of the seas and the inability to get out there with all of the ...