Possible signals from lost jet's black boxes heard

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Underwater sounds detected by a ship searching the southern Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet are consistent with the pings from aircraft black boxes, an Australian official said Monday, dubbing it "a most promising lead" in the monthlong hunt for the vanished plane.

"Clearly this is a most promising lead, and probably in the search so far, it's probably the best information that we have had," Houston said at a news conference. "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."Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the search, warned that it could take days to confirm whether the signals picked up by the Australian navy ship Ocean Shield are indeed from the black boxes that belonged to Flight 370, but called the discovery very encouraging.

After a monthlong search for answers filled with dead ends, Monday's news brought fresh hope given that the two black boxes, which contain flight data and cockpit voice recordings, are the key to unraveling exactly what happened to Flight 370 and why.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammudin Hussein told reporters that in light of the new information, "We are cautiously hopeful that there will be a positive development in the next few days, if not hours."

There was little time left to locate the devices, which have beacons that emit "pings" so they can be more easily found. The beacons' batteries last only about a month — and Tuesday marks exactly one month since the plane disappeared during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people on board.

The Australian navy's Ocean Shield, which is carrying high-tech sound detectors from the U.S. Navy, picked up two separate signals late Saturday night and early Sunday morning within a remote patch of the Indian Ocean far off the west Australian coast that search crews have been crisscrossing for weeks. The first signal lasted two hours and 20 minutes before it was lost. The ship then turned around and picked up a signal again — this time recording two distinct "pinger returns" that lasted 13 minutes, Houston said.

Ships Race to Investigate Signals in Jet Search

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"Significantly, this would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder," Houston said.

Still, Houston cautioned that it was too early to say the transmissions were coming from the missing jet.

"I would want more confirmation before we say this is it," he said. "Without wreckage, we can't say it's definitely here. We've got to go down and have a look."

The airliner's black boxes normally emit a frequency of 37.5 kilohertz, and the signals picked up by the Ocean Shield were both 33.3 kilohertz, said U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Matthews. But officials contacted the device's manufacturer and were told the frequency of black boxes can drift near the end of their shelf lives.

The Ocean Shield was slowly canvassing a small area trying to find the signal again, though that could take another day, Matthews said.

The ping locator is designed to detect signals at a range of 1.8 kilometers (1.12 miles), meaning it would need to be almost on top of the black boxes to detect them if they were on the ocean floor, which is about 4,500 meters (14,800 feet) deep.

If they pick up the signal again, the crew will launch an underwater vehicle to investigate, Matthews said. The Bluefin-21 autonomous sub can create a sonar map of the area to chart where the debris may lie on the sea floor. If it maps out a debris field, the crew will replace the sonar system with a camera unit to photograph any wreckage."It's like playing hot and cold when you're searching for something and someone's telling you you're getting warmer and warmer and warmer," he said. "When you're right on top of it you get a good return."

But that may prove tricky, given that the sub can only dive to about 4,500 meters (14,800 feet) — the approximate depth of the water. That means the vehicle will be operating to the limits of its capability.

Given the difficulties involved, officials warned the mystery of Flight 370 would still take time to resolve.

"It could take some days before the information is available to establish whether these detections can be confirmed as being from MH370," Houston said. "In very deep oceanic water, nothing happens fast."

Geoff Dell, discipline leader of accident investigation at Central Queensland University in Australia, said it would be "coincidental in the extreme" for the sounds to have come from anything other than an aircraft's black box.

"If they have a got a legitimate signal, and it's not from one of the other vessels or something, you would have to say they are within a bull's roar," he said. "There's still a chance that it's a spurious signal that's coming from somewhere else and they are chasing a ghost, but it certainly is encouraging that they've found something to suggest they are in the right spot."

Meanwhile, the British ship HMS Echo, was using sophisticated sound-locating equipment to try to determine whether two separate sounds heard by a Chinese ship about 555 kilometers (345 miles) away from the Ocean Shield were related to the plane. The patrol vessel Haixun 01 detected a brief "pulse signal" on Friday and a second signal on Saturday.

The crew of the Chinese ship reportedly picked up the signals using a sonar device called a hydrophone dangled over the side of a small boat — something experts said was technically possible but extremely unlikely. The equipment aboard the British and Australian ships is dragged slowly behind each vessel over long distances and is considered far more sophisticated.

The search effort was also continuing on the ocean surface Monday. Twelve planes and 14 ships were searching three designated zones, one of which overlaps with the Ocean Shield's underwater search. All of the previous surface searches have found only fishing equipment or other sea trash floating in the water, but have found no debris related to the Malaysian plane.

Soda sales in US decline at faster pace

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans cut back on soda at an accelerated pace last year, extending a slow retreat from the category that began nearly a decade ago.

The latest numbers underscore the daunting challenge Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. face in turning around the category, despite their plans to intensify marketing and introduce versions of their flagship sodas made with natural, low-calorie sweeteners.U.S. sales volume of carbonated soft drinks fell 3 percent in 2013, according to a report released Monday by Beverage Digest, an industry tracker. That represents a steeper drop than the 1.2 percent decline in 2012 and brings total soda volume to the lowest level since 1995.

While carbonated soft drinks still represent the biggest category in the beverage industry, alternatives such as energy drinks and flavored waters have slowly chipped away at the popularity of longtime favorites like Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper.

Soda's image has also taken a beating, with public health advocates blaming it for fueling weight gain.

Even diet sodas are suffering. Last year, for instance, sales volume for Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi suffered steeper declines than their full-calorie counterparts.

"The carbonated category is in need of innovation and innovation quickly," said John Sicher, publisher of Beverage Digest.

Industry executives blame the trend in diet sodas on worries people have about artificial sweeteners. But newer, smaller brands made with artificial sweeteners, such as Sparkling Ice by TalkingRain, have enjoyed strong growth.

Overall, Coca-Cola Co. fared better than rival PepsiCo and saw its soda volume fall 2.2 percent, according to the Beverage Digest. In addition to its namesake soda, Coca-Cola owns Sprite and Fanta.

PepsiCo Inc., which makes Mountain Dew, saw volume fall 4.4 percent. That was despite the company's stepped up marketing for Pepsi, including sponsorship of the Super Bowl halftime show for the past two years.

Overall, the declines in the soda category mean that 1.2 billion cases have been wiped from the industry since 1995. Each case represents 192 ounces.

Coke remains the top soda brand, followed by Diet Coke at No. 2, Pepsi at No. 3 and Mountain Dew at No. 4. The only new brand in the top 10 was Coke Zero, which displaced Diet Dr Pepper.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo both make an array of other beverages, including bottled water, orange juice and sports drinks. But sodas still account for a large and lucrative portion of their businesses.

Dan Schafer, a spokesman for Coca-Cola, said the Atlanta company was "committed to returning our overall sparkling business to growth in the U.S."

A representative for PepsiCo, Dave DeCecco, noted that the company's portfolio includes several leading beverages in growth categories, such as Gatorade in sports drinks and Lipton in bottled teas. The company, based in Purchase, N.Y., has noted that it is less dependent on soda sales than rival Coca-Cola.

North, South Korea trade live fire over sea border

Seoul (AFP) - The two Koreas traded hundreds of rounds of live artillery fire across their disputed maritime border Monday, forcing South Korean islanders to take shelter a day after the North drove up tensions by threatening a new nuclear test.

South Korea's defence ministry said the North fired some 500 shells during the drill, around 100 of them landing on the south side of the sea boundary.The exchange, triggered by a three-hour North Korean live-fire exercise that dropped shells into South Korean waters, was limited to untargeted shelling into the sea, military officials said.

The ministry said the South had responded to Pyongyang's "premeditated provocation" by firing 300 shells from K-9 self-propelled howitzer batteries based on its front-line islands.

"If the North takes issue with our legitimate returning of fire and uses it to make yet another provocation towards our sea and islands, we will make a resolute retaliation," ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said.

The United States denounced North Korea's artillery fire, with the White House and the Pentagon accusing Pyongyang of "dangerous" behavior.

"The provocation that the North Koreans have once again engaged in is dangerous and it needs to stop," Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel told reporters in Washington.

Analysts said the incident, coming a day after Pyongyang threatened to conduct a "new" type of nuclear test, was largely a sign of the North's growing frustration with US resistance to resuming multi-party talks on its nuclear programme.Hagel said the North's actions would be "a subject that I will discuss with my counterpart in China" during a tour of Asia over the next two weeks.

"I don't see that this ran any real risk of escalating into a serious clash," said Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

"It's really North Korea showing it intends to keep the pressure on to resume a dialogue," Yang said.

Pyongyang sees the nuclear negotiations as an opportunity to win material concessions and aid from the international community.

The South Korean stock market shrugged off the incident, with the main Kospi index closing up 0.23 percent at 1,985.61.

- Unusual advance warning -

The North had ensured maximum publicity for its live-fire drill by taking the unusual step of notifying the South beforehand, and issuing a provocative no-sail, no-fly advisory.

The exercise began at 12:15pm (0315 GMT) and South Korea, which had threatened to respond if any shells crossed the border, retaliated shortly afterwards, the defence ministry said.

As a precaution, border island residents were evacuated to shelters, as South Korean fighter jets flew overhead. The evacuation order was lifted an hour after the North ended its drill.

In November 2010, North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong island just south of the sea boundary, killing four people and triggering concerns of a full-scale conflict.

China, the North's key ally, expressed concern and urged the two Koreas to exercise restraint.

Pyongyang has carried out a series of rocket and short-range missile launches in recent weeks, in a pointed protest at ongoing annual South Korea-US military exercises."Currently there are raised tensions on the Korean peninsula, and we are concerned about this. We hope relevant parties exercise restraint," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

Monday's incident coincided with a massive, amphibious landing drill by nearly 15,000 South Korean and US troops.

Last week, the North upped the ante by test-firing two mid-range ballistic missiles capable of striking Japan.

The UN Security Council condemned the launches, and Pyongyang responded with its threat of a new type of nuclear test -- a possible reference to testing a uranium-based device or a miniaturised warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile.

North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests, the most recent -- and most powerful -- in February last year.

Most experts believe it is still some way from mastering the technology required to build a miniaturised warhead -- a development that would be seen as a game-changer in assessing the North's nuclear arms capabilities.

- 'Severe cost' for nuclear test -

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se warned Monday that the North would pay a "severe cost" if it went ahead with another test in defiance of UN sanctions.

North-South tensions have been rising for weeks, undermining hopes raised after the North in February hosted the first reunion for more than three years of families separated by the war.

As well as the annual South Korean-US military drills, the North has been angered by efforts to bring Pyongyang before the UN Security Council over a UN report detailing Pyongyang's record of systematic human rights abuse.

In a new bid to coordinate policy, the State Department announced that Robert King, the US special envoy for human rights in North Korea, would visit South Korea and Japan starting Wednesday

Asiana: Jet partly to blame in California crash

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Asiana Airlines acknowledged in documents released Monday that its pilots failed to correct their fatally slow approach to a landing at San Francisco International Airport but also blamed the maker of the jet, saying it did not automatically maintain a safe speed.

U.S. accident investigators made public a filing in which the South Korea-based airline asserted that the Boeing 777 had major design flaws that led the pilots to believe it would keep flying at the proper speed and that failed to warn the cockpit crew in time when it did not.

Boeing Co. countered in its own filing with the National Transportation Safety Board that the airplane performed as expected, and the pilots were to blame for the July 6 crash because they stuck with a troubled landing.

The plane slammed into a seawall at the beginning of a runway during its final approach. The impact ripped off its back and scattered pieces of the jet as it spun and skidded to a stop.

In all, 304 of the 307 people aboard survived. Coroner's officials concluded that one of three teens who died, Ye Meng Yuan, was run over and killed by a rescue vehicle as she lay on the tarmac.

Asiana acknowledged in its NTSB filing that the crew failed to monitor air speed in the moments before the crash and should have aborted the landing for another go around.

"The probable cause of this accident was the flight crew's failure to monitor and maintain a minimum safe airspeed during a final approach," Asiana conceded.

However, Asiana argued that the pilots and co-pilot reasonably believed the automatic throttle would keep the plane going fast enough to reach the runway — when in fact the auto throttle was effectively shut off after the pilot idled it to correct an unexplained climb earlier in the landing.

The airline said the plane should have been designed so the auto throttle would maintain the proper speed after the pilot put it in "hold mode."

Instead, the auto throttle did not indicate that the plane had stopped maintaining the set air speed, and an alert sounded too late for the pilots to avoid the crash, Asiana said. The airline added that U.S. and European aviation officials have warned Boeing about the issue, but it has not been changed.

In most other planes, idling the auto throttle would not disengage it for the rest of a flight, aviation safety consultant John Cox said.

Cox, president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems and a former airline pilot and accident investigator, likened it to the cruise control in a car. If a driver sets it for 55 mph (88.5 kph) and then accelerates to pass a car, the driver would expect the cruise control to re-engage when the speed slows to 55 mph (88.5 kph) again.

"The flight crew had an expectation that the auto throttle system was going to do certain things that it did not do," Cox said. "Although they were trained about it, it was not overly intuitive."

Asiana wrote that the pilot flying the plane, Lee Kang Kuk, had been trained to recognize the throttle issue with a 777. The most recent training was three months before the accident, and the instructor specifically used a landing at San Francisco airport as an example.

"This lesson was explained on two occasions by two different instructor pilots," Asiana wrote. Lee "attended the lectures, asked questions specifically about this feature of the automation, and discussed the 'anomaly' with his fellow trainee captains after class."

The NTSB previously said the pilots showed signs of confusion about the 777's elaborate computer systems. The agency has not determined an exact cause of the crash.

Lee was an experienced pilot with Asiana but was a trainee captain in the 777, with less than 45 hours in the jet. He has told transportation safety board investigators that he did not immediately move to perform an emergency "go around" because he felt only the instructor pilot had that authority.

Asiana wrote to the NTSB that under its company policy, "any pilot can and should call for a go-around — without penalty — whenever confronted with a potential safety issue."

Boeing told the NTSB the airplane and all its systems were functioning as expected.

"Boeing believes that the evidence supports the following conclusion: This accident occurred due to the flight crew's failure to monitor and control airspeed, thrust level and glide path on short final approach," the airplane manufacturer said.

Asiana and Boeing have been sued in U.S. courts over the crash.

Attorney Michael Verna, who represents several clients seeking damages from Asiana, said the airline documents released Monday amounted to a probable cause statement that he would use when his cases go before a federal judge in Oakland.

"Had the pilots monitored the instruments," Verna said, "we wouldn't have had the accident."

MH370: fresh debris dismissed but search will go on, says Australian PM

Orange objects spotted by a plane searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet have turned out to be nothing more than fishing equipment, and the Australia prime minister, Tony Abbott, has declared there's no time limit on the search for MH370.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the objects had been analysed and a spokesman, Jesse Platts, said: "They have nothing to do with the missing flight."

An Australian P-3 Orion search plane spotted at least four orange objects in waters west of Perth on Sunday and were described by the pilot Russell Adams as the most promising lead in the search so far.

But despite yet another false alarm, Abbott said the search would not be scaled down.

"I'm certainly not putting a time limit on it ... We can keep searching for quite some time to come," he said on Monday at RAAF Pearce, the Perth military base coordinating the operation.

"We owe it to the families, we owe it to everyone that travels by air, we owe it to the anxious governments of the countries who had people on that aircraft. We owe it to the wider world which has been transfixed by this mystery for three weeks now."

The Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield conducted sea trials of hi-tech detection equipment on Monday before its 1850km journey to a tract of the southern Indian Ocean west of Perth.

The trials included a US Navy black box detector, an unmanned underwater vehicle and other acoustic detection equipment.

The Ocean Shield is expected to take up to four days to reach the 319,000-square-kilometre search zone. Another navy ship, the frigate HMAS Toowoomba, reached the area by mid-morning on Monday after two days at sea.

It is a race against time, given the box's low-frequency acoustic beacon has a limited battery life. That has extended from an estimated 30 days to roughly 45 days, according to Captain Mark Matthews, a US Navy equipment specialist.

"These are rated to last 30 days, but that is a minimum. In my experience, they do last a little bit longer than that," Matthews said on Monday.

But the operation remained an extraordinarily difficult exercise, Abbott said.

"We are searching a vast area of ocean and working with quite limited information," he said after touring the Pearce base, where search planes from seven nations are being deployed, involving 550 personnel.

The defence minister, David Johnston, said about 1,000 sailors were looking for debris at sea but the task was still onerous.

Each country involved is bearing its own costs, but Australia is paying for the running of the co-ordination centre, which will have about 20 staff and be led by the retired air chief marshall Angus Houston from headquarters in Perth’s CBD.

Abbott also said his Malaysian counterpart was not too hasty in announcing last week that the plane was lost in the southern Indian Ocean and all on board were assumed dead, despite no debris being recovered or confirmed as being from MH370.

"That's the absolute overwhelming weight of evidence and I think that prime minister Najib Razak was perfectly entitled to come to that conclusion," he said.

A comment piece in the China Daily newspaper called for "rationality" among relatives – some of whom insist their loved ones could still be alive.