DHAKA: Hopes that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 might soon be found fluctuated on Friday.
The most recent acoustic signal detected Thursday by an Australian aircraft in the search is "unlikely to be related to the aircraft black boxes," Australian chief search coordinator Angus Houston said in a statement, reports the CNN.
"On the information I have available to me, there has been no major breakthrough in the search for MH370," Houston said Friday. "Further analysis continues to be undertaken by Australian Joint Acoustic Analysis Centre."
But on the same day, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said officials are "very confident" the signals picked up by acoustic detectors are coming from the black boxes of the missing plane.
"We have very much narrowed down the search area, and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box on MH370," Abbott told reporters during an official visit to China.
It`s unclear exactly which signals Abbott was referring to. Prior to the fifth ping on Thursday, four signals were detected over the past week.
"We are now getting to the stage where the signal from what we are very confident is the black boxes starting to fade, and we are hoping to get as much information as we can before the signal finally expires," Abbott said.
Friday is Day 35 in the search. The batteries powering the flight recorders` locator beacons are certified to emit high-pitched signals for only 30 days after they get wet.
Sky News reporter Brooke Corte was among the reporters in Shanghai covering a potential free trade agreement between Australia and China when someone asked Abbott about the latest ping.
"He came out with ... the strongest statement he`s made so far about locating that black box," Corte told CNN. "He said, `We do have the signal. What we`re looking at this stage is that we are confident that it is the black box.`"
Abbott`s prepared speech was less bold.
"We are confident that we know the position of the black box flight recorder to within some kilometres," a transcript released by Abbott`s office said.
BDST: 1318 HRS, APR 11, 2014
