MH370 search: Recovery to stretch limits of technology

KUALA LUMPUR: Searchers have time and tide against them as they narrow the hunt for missing Malaysian Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 using final “pings” from flight recorders soon to fall silent. Finding the boxes will be just the start of a challenge to pluck wreckage from the ocean that may stretch technology to its limits.

For the second time since flight MH370 disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur on March 8, experts are having to rely on metronomic whispers from the plane's electronic systems to try to track it down. It was satellite pings that led searchers on the path south to the Indian Ocean where an Australian ship picked up possible pings from the recorders on April 5.