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Prime minister, yes. but in the reports of angus houston and the fact they actually have pings, some of them as long as two hours plus, that's pretty good. there have been other accidents. based on other accidents in the past, sometimes they don't have that much to go on and they're still able to get those black boxes. i think there's cause for optimism, but no matter how many pings you get, you still have to have a -- it's long, hard work to get those submersibles down there and actually find the black boxes and figure out where they are and how to get them up. so there's lots to go yet. but ...

Something but still a lot of work ahead, guys. >> all right. will ripley, thank you so much for the update. we appreciate it. and let's discuss the latest on the investigation with cnn aviation analyst and former inspector general with the u.s. transportation department. >> we have simon boxwell also with us, an oceanographer joining uses from london. mary, i want to start with you. there is this level of optimism because of the comments from prime minister tony abbott saying there's a high degree of confidence, kind of doubling down on these signals. but you've been here in that chair, i've...

Of years ago. it crashed in january. they got the black boxes in august. the world record was in the indian ocean, 16,000 feet. they got those in two days. you never know how long the next step is going to take. >> simon, does it bother you they haven't seen one piece of debris up to this point? >> no, not particularly. i mean, they're looking for surface debris. let's face t over the past month, they've been chasing rainbows. they've been looking in the wrong place. it's only in the last week that the search area is focused on this far north site. far further north than anything before. if we...

Have to look at it with caution. this has been reported by xinhua, it has not been confirmed by the australian joint center working on all of this trying to coordinate everything. we have to wait and see what comes out of it. it would indeed be extraordinary if they are able to have located from the pinger from the aircraft itself. hopeful -- certainly. it's going to raise a lot of people's hopes but i really need to see it confirmed by someone else. i need to see confirmed again by the chinese, in order to determine how much credibility we should put into it. victor? >> simon box all, we don'...

The black box, hoping to get much needed answers first. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. all right. we're going to continue the conversation now. we've got breaking news in from the chinese state news agency xinhua, that chinese patrol ship searching the area of the indian ocean has detected a pulse signal. >> a pulse signal. >> a pulse signal. that's as much as we know about this. so let's bring in an expert who can tell us more, simon boxwell, oceanographer with the nationalography center. >> let me ask you, simon, we're hearing this is a pulse signal wit...