開始水下搜尋馬航失蹤客機黑匣子

Crews in the remote southern Indian Ocean have begun the underwater hunt for the missing Malaysian jetliner's flight data recorder, which is set to run out of battery power in just a few days.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said Friday a U.S. Navy towed pinger locator is being dragged across a 240-kilometer track to try to detect a signal from the black box.

Authorities estimate they have only until around Monday before the batteries run out on the black box's locator beacon, which transmits electronic signals, or pings.

That date marks 30 days since the Boeing 777 mysteriously vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A massive, multinational search effort has turned up no traces of the jet.

On Friday, an expanded team of 14 airplanes and nine ships continued their so far fruitless mission of looking for possible signs of wreckage floating on the ocean surface.

Houston, who is heading up the Australian agency coordinating the search, said crews have not given up hope of finding some debris floating on the water.有關人員開始在南印度洋海域搜尋馬航失蹤客機的飛行數據記錄器。按照設計規定，黑匣子的電池將在幾天內耗盡。

退役的前澳大利亞空軍司令休斯頓星期五說，目前正在240公里寬的海域使用美國海軍的脈衝信號定位儀探測失蹤客機黑匣子發出的信號。

有關當局估計，黑匣子的電池大約將在下星期一耗盡，不再發出信號。

自這架原定從吉隆坡飛往北京的波音777客機失蹤後，到下星期一已經過去30天，目前多國搜尋行動還沒有找到有關這架客機的任何線索。

星期五，14架飛機和九艘船隻繼續在印度洋搜尋可能在海面漂浮的失蹤客機殘骸。

休斯頓是澳大利亞聯合搜尋行動協調中心的負責人。他說，搜尋人員還沒有放棄找到浮在水面上的失蹤客機殘骸碎片的希望。