William Jay Marks News Today

They may not be synchronized, according to our audio expert here. were they the same sort of signal, or do you know? >> yeah, thats true. they would most likely not be synchronized. and they obviously were consistent with what we would expect from these black boxes. >> so youre getting both, you believe, cvr and fdr? >> thats the initial indication. but once again, without confirmation, real confirmation will come when we can get the side scan sonar out there down there and get an actual picture...

Without saying it is. >> right. >> clearly, this is the most promising lead and probably in the search so far. its probably the best information we have had, you know, that is its in the right zone. it refines down to where the satellite work that has been done by the international group is. this is as close as were going to get until they get assets into the water. >> stand by. lets get some more information here. joining me now on the phone is commander william jay marks, u.s. 7th fleet affair...

So and what that will do is in addition to having general information, i can walk you through it a little bit. >> okay, go ahead, commander. >> sure. the way we do it is this was a period of significant detection activity. we heard consecutive pings at about one-second intervals. that was the first indication. at that time, the towed pinger locator was only about 300 meters deep. now thats not as deep as you would expect. so at that point, it was encouraging to get a signal. however, we were not...

>> absolutely. >> 100%. is the commander -- >> the commander is there. go ahead. >> commander, do you think that the signal you heard for two hours 20 minutes and the one you heard for 13 minutes were two different ones? >> so we do have -- there was a slight difference in frequency. and so typically, if these were brand-new and sitting right in front of you, they would be at about the same frequency. however, they were at a slightly different frequency, which -- thats the reason were being very...

Doing. and remember, this only gets to the direction and the location of the black box. the side scan sonar is what is going to get you that visual confirmation. thats really what we need. the tpl, the towed pinger locator, is just to get you in the right spot. and then the crews deploy the bluefin. >> could this have anything to do with the battery -- the battery life being at its end? >> great question. im not an expert in the black boxes. but there are so many variables. the battery -- >> i u...

Different boxes? the cvr and the fdr? >> so weve heard similar frequencies, but different locations. so that we believe could have been an indication of two separate beacons. >> got it. we got you. thank you. how far apart? >> that i dont know. >> dont know. commander, thank you very much. breaking news. thats all ill say. we have to take a break here. the most encouraging news weve had since this plane went missing. you do not want to tune away. were going have more coming right after this shor...

All right. breaking news into cnn. the man in charge of this search saying himself that this is a most encouragie ining bit of information coming out regarding malaysia airlines flight 370. just within the last 24 hours, that they have heard two similar signals in two different locations that are consistent, they believe, with black boxes from airplanes. okay. joining me now on the phone is commander william marks from the u.s. 7th fleet. he is from the public affairs. he is aboard the uss bluer...