The four acoustic underwater ‘‘pings’’ picked up last month are no longer believed to have come from the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorders, in a major setback in the ongoing search, says Michael Dean, the US Navy’s deputy director for salvage and diving.
‘‘Based on all of the imagery data that we’ve collected and looked at, if that black box were nearby we would have picked it up,’’ he told CNN on Thursday.
He said the best theory is that the pings were actually sounds from the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield or from the pinger locator being towed behind the ship.
The Prime Minister of Australia expressed his sympathy to the families for the search not turning up anything.
‘‘Based on all of the imagery data that we’ve collected and looked at, if that black box were nearby we would have picked it up,’’ he told CNN on Thursday.
He said the best theory is that the pings were actually sounds from the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield or from the pinger locator being towed behind the ship.
The Prime Minister of Australia expressed his sympathy to the families for the search not turning up anything.