--- title: MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted | TIME description: MH370 search crews try new device to locator plane's black box ping canonical: https://time.com/video/arRZREt2/ og:title: MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted og:description: MH370 search crews try new device to locator plane's black box ping og:url: https://time.com/video/arRZREt2/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/arRZREt2/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted twitter:description: MH370 search crews try new device to locator plane's black box ping twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/arRZREt2/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted [Watch (HLS stream): MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/arRZREt2.m3u8) (2:17)  _Published 2014-04-05. MH370 search crews try new device to locator plane's black box ping_ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:22 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Australian Authorities Regret the 'Unacceptable' End to MH370 Search](/video/M2CVvwqh/) ### Australian Authorities Regret the 'Unacceptable' End to MH370 Search [With No Pings Heard For Nearly A Week, MH370 Search Crews Turn To Sub](/video/HEW1cIBd/) ### With No Pings Heard For Nearly A Week, MH370 Search Crews Turn To Sub [How Deep is the Search for MH370?](/video/qnkMLuVJ/) ### How Deep is the Search for MH370? --- ## Transcript [ NOISE ] It can descend 20, 000 feet below the surface, it can detect this sound coming from the black box's pinger from two nautical miles away. But experts say deploying the toad pinger locater right now, is a hail mary pass. We're asking a big, big ask. It was never designed to do this. Officials at Phoenix International, the manufacturers of the pinger locator, agree that these conditions are far from ideal. To be most effective, it needs a starting point. A confirmed piece of wreckage from Malaysia Airlines flight 370. If they haven't found debris, is it pointless to use this? Your question pointless, it's not a good description. It is very, very difficult if they have not found debris to even know where to start. The pinger locator's limitations, it's passive. It listens for signals from the pinger, it doesn't send out signals to pick them up. Obstructions like underwater hills or mountains can impede it. Weather is a big factor. If the boat is doing this on the ocean waves, now, you're attached to an umbilical to this thing. So this thing goes up and down and is much less stable in the water. The first toad pinger locator was designed in 1976. In the last 18 years, it's been used four times in major commercial air crashes. In 2009, it passed right over the black box from Air France flight 447 in the Atlantic. In that case, the pinger locator failed to find the pinger. The manufacturer says that's because the pinger had broken off from the black box. It may have been damaged. But in three other cases, success. A 1996 Birgenair crash in the Caribbean. The Egyptair crash in the Atlantic in 1999, and the 2007 crash of an Atom Air Jet off Indonesia. The black boxes were found, but the search areas were relatively small. Malaysia Air is the fifth attempt, and it's still a long shot. We've got nothing to lose. It's certainly got a better shot out on the Indian Ocean than it has alongside the dock in Perth. An official from the manufacturer expresses confidence, telling us if that pinger on Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is working and they're searching in the right area, they'll find it. 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