Day 89 — Underwater sound

Curtin University near Perth, Australia, on Wednesday released an audio clip captured by one of the listening devices, off of Perth. This underwater sound that they say could possibly be related to the final moments of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

The signal, which lasts just five seconds, was picked up by sound recorders off Rottnest Island just after 1.30am UTC on March 8.

"One signal has been detected on several receivers that could be related to the crash," said Alec Duncan with the university's Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST).

Researchers have been analyzing the very low frequency sound for weeks to see if it was "the impact of the aircraft on the water or the implosion of parts of the aircraft as it sank," Duncan said. "But (the source of the noise) is just as likely to be a natural event."

Low frequency signals can travel thousands of miles through water under favorable circumstances, at about 1 mile per second, Duncan said. But "at the moment (the sound) appears to be inconsistent with other data about the aircraft position," he said.