An Australian ship, which was searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, recently detected signals that are believed to be the “most promising” lead to finding the missing plane. The signals, which were found near the Indian Ocean, were found by using a black box detector attached to the ship and were held for almost three hours. The first one was held for two and a half hours before the ship lost contact, and the second one was held for thirteen minutes after turning around in a different direction. Both signals remained consistent with aircraft flight recordings.

“On this occasion two distinct pinger returns were audible, significantly, this would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder,” said Angus Houston, a retired Air Chief Marshall. “We’ve got a visual indication on a screen, and we’ve also got an audible signal. And the audible signal sounds to me just like an emergency locator beacon.”

While several ships were searching for clues to the missing plane, a Navy vessel off the coast of Perth was able to detect a signal which coincided with that of aircraft flight recordings. After the signal with the Australian ship was lost, a Chinese ship that was placed many miles away detected the same signal. Although the ships were far away from each other, it is believed that the signals that were found are a lead to finding the plane. Several countries have now sent out vessels to try and detect more signals or evidence that would be of aid.

“I believe we are searching in the right are. I’m now optimistic that we will find the aircraft — or what is left of the aircraft — in the not too distant future. But we haven’t found it yet, because this is a very challenging business,” said Houston.

Since the first encounter more signals have been found, and although the signals are thought to be from the Malaysian plane, the results to determine whether or not it was the aircraft will take several days. There have been no physical remains of the plane found.