Unconfirmed report says MH370 black box has been FOUND

RESCUE teams are now within “several” kilometres of what they are now confident are the black box flight recorders from missing Malaysian plane MH370, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has revealed.

But he said they were now engaged in a race against time to find it as the signal starts to fade.

The Prime Minister will meet personally with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this afternoon to update him on the latest efforts to find the black box, hinting that it would soon be located.

“We have very much narrowed down the search area ... we have now had a series of detections, some for quite a long period of time.

“It’s now getting to the stage that the signal from what we are very confident is from the black box is starting to fade.

“We are hoping to get as much information as we can before the signals finally expire.

“We have very much narrowed down the search area.

But the PM said he did not want to reveal any more details out of respect to the Chinese families, until he met with President Xi tonight in Beijing.

“I really don’t want to say more than that,” he said.

The PM later has described the loss of Malaysian flight MH370 as one of the “great mysteries of our time”.

Search continues .. Leading Seaman Aircrewman (LSA) Daniel Colbert winches LSA Joel Young into the water from HMAS Toowoomba's S-70B-2 Seahawk helicopter Tiger 75 to retrieve possible debris. Picture: Julianne Cropley/Australian Department of Defence Source: Getty Images

The Prime Minister confirmed the position of the black box flight recorder was now known and would update President Xi personally.

“It is probably the most difficult search in human history,” Mr Abbott said in a speech to 1800 people at the official launch of Australia in China week.

“I thank the government and people of China for the help that they have given to Australia as we lead this search and recovery effort.

“I look forward to providing President Xi with the latest update when I meet him in Beijing this afternoon. We are confident that we know the position of the black box flight recorder to within about a kilometre.

“Still, confidence in the approximate position of the black box is not the same as recovering wreckage from almost four and half kilometres beneath the sea or finally determining all that happened on that flight.”

Working together ... Commanding Officer of HMAS Success Capt. Allison Norris, RAN, greets the Peoples Liberation Army Navy Liaison Officer Commander Lin Wan from the Luyang II class guided missile destroyer Haikou (DDG-171). Picture: Julianne Cropley/Australian Department of Defence Source: Getty Images

Delivering a personal message of condolence for the families and friend of 154 Chinese victims, Mr Abbott assured the Chinese leadership “that Australia will not rest until we have done everything we can to provide comfort and closure. You will be among sorrowing friends should you choose to come to Australia.”

However there was some confusion as — almost at the same time as Mr Abbott was speaking — the head of the agency leading the search issued a statement saying there were no new breakthroughs.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said a signal detected by a RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft was not related to an aircraft underwater locator beacon.

It is believed that the confusion arose because he was referring to a detection made by a plane on Thursday.

Today’s optimism arose from a more recent spotting by a ship.

The report was Tweeted by aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, the editor-in-chief of the website airlineratings.com and executive editor of AirlineReview.com.

Mr Thomas told Perth radio station 6PR that the Ocean Shield and the HMS Echo have both left the search area “at speed” and sources had told him there was a possibility they had “triangulated” and located the black box.

“Echo has come along and done a radar scan, an echo scan if you like, along the bottom and they’ve had a return which is a positive, which may indicate the wreckage of a plane.”

Abbott 'confident' signals are MH370 3:58

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Tony Abbott says he is very confident the signals are from MH370 but are weakening. Courtesy: Sky

He stressed these were unconfirmed reports but “if they are firm enough to say we have located the black box, that is enough for them to launch the Bluefin 21 to go down to the bottom and take photographs or scan the bottom with a sonar scanner.

“It will either take an electronic scan or it will have a camera and lights and take a photograph.

“If HMS Echo has come in and done a scan of the ocean floor over their triangulated best estimate, then all of the sudden you’re getting a very positive return off the ocean floor.

“Don’t forget, the ocean floor is all silt, a big object like a 250 tonne aeroplane, it is going to give you a different shaper return, rather than a softer return.”

Asked about the search effort, Mr Thomas said: “I think they have done an absolutely outstanding job, I mean the international collaboration now basically led by the Australians, with the United States, the British, the Malaysians and the Chinese. I think they’ve done an extraordinary job given the limited information they had to start off with ... to have found this so quickly is outstanding.”

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