An oil slick found near the area where searchers detected underwater "pings" that may be linked to missing Flight 370’s black box is not from an aircraft, officials said Thursday.
Hopes were raised that the slick, found about 18,000 feet down-wind from the signals detected by a U.S. Navy "pinger locator" earlier this week, might provide clues to the final resting place of missing MH370, which vanished on March 8.
A sample of about two liters was tested but “preliminary analysis of the sample collected by Australian Defense Vessel, Ocean Shield has confirmed that it is not aircraft engine oil or hydraulic fluid,” Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Center, which is leading the painstaking search, said in a statement.
-Henry Austin
