Signals detected from likely black box touted as most promising lead in MH370 search

The head of the Australian agency coordinating search operations, Angus Houston, has confirmed Australian vessel Ocean Shield has detected signals consistent with Malaysian Airlines plane's black boxes.

Air Chief Marshal Houston described the lead as the most promising yet in the search so far.

He added that more signals have been detected by a towed pinger locator deployed by the Ocean Shield, news.com.au reports.

According to news.com.au, Houston added that two separate signal detections have occurred within the northern part of the defined search area.

He said both would be consistent with transmissions from the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

Air Chief Marshal Houston described the find as 'the most promising lead' yet.

He said the position of the signals would need to be fixed before an autonomous underwater vehicle 'Blue Fin 21' could be deployed to locate wreckage, the report said.

He further argued it could take time to establish with certainty if the detections are from MH370.