Doubts emerge over authenticity of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 black box pings

The Australian search agency's refusal to make public the audio recordings of four acoustic "ping" signals, believed to have come from the black boxes of MH370, has raised new doubt over the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight.

According to News.com.au, after strong initial certainty they were hearing black box transmissions, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre headed by Angus Houston now appears less certain that they came from the plane.

The JACC in a statement to News Corp Australia said that analysis on all four detections is continuing.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshall Houston had earlier said that he did not see any reasons to withhold the audio tape.

However, his stand changed after six weeks of intense examination of the signals, following which questions are now being raised over the legitimacy of the two sets of pings, detected by the Ocean Shield's towed-pinger locater on April 5 and 8.

It has also raised questions over the need for further analysis, as the signals have already been subject to extensive scrutiny, the report adds.