Nearly a month after its disappearance, new developments bring the search teams closer to finding the missing Boeing 777 plane. Over the past couple of weeks search teams have covered the whole of the southern Indian Ocean looking for the wreckage to no avail. Yet, new information discovered by the Chinese and Australians could provide some closure to the families still hoping to hear about their loved ones last moments.

On Saturday, the Chinese search ship Haixun 01 possibly detected the pinging sound emitted by black boxes, according to the Washington Post. The ship detected the sound at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude in the same area where the search has been happening, 1,000 miles off Perth, Australia.

The signal detected measured at a frequency of 37.5 kilohertz and was repeating at one-second intervals. Anish Patel, president of pinger-manufacturer Dukane Seacom, confirmed that the frequency coincides with the frequency of pingers they manufacture. At that frequency, the risk of confusing it with other naturally occurring frequencies is minimal.

"The reason it was chosen was to give that standout quality that does not get interfered with by the background noise that readily occurs in the ocean," Patel told the Post. However, he added that everyone should await confirmation since only one signal was retrieved but there are two beacons in the plane, one from the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

Yet, the Chinese ship is the only source of new information. The Australian ship Ocean Shield has also detected a ping; however, it is 300 nautical miles north of where the Haixun 01 detected its ping, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Air Chief Marshall (Ret.) Angus Houston cautioned against hope until the pings were verified to be connected or until either one was proved to be from the missing plane.

"This is a painstaking process and if we get any lead whatsoever we investigate it," he said. "It is something that takes time.  We're dealing with very deep water, we're dealing with an environment where sometimes you can get false indications, there are lots of noises in the ocean and sometimes the acoustic equipment can rebound, echo."