Airline News
MH370: more possible debris located
August 17th 2015
An Australian search and recovery team has collected sonar images that could provide the next breakthrough in the investigation into the loss of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370. Read More »
Images have identified two square-like objects, deemed to be Category 3, meaning they are most likely debris. However, in a frustrating twist of events, Fugro Survey managing director, Steve Duffield, warned researchers would not be able to reach the objects for a few months because of severe weather. He said it might be November or December before the Fugro crew could launch their Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to inspect the objects close up. Fugro has been working with the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) for more than a year in the $60 million hunt for wreckage of the missing B777-200ER, using vessels Discovery and Equator.
Last week, Malaysia was officially notified by the Maldives Civil Aviation Authority that objects resembling aircraft debris had been recovered in the island nation, two months after officials ruled out the possibility that debris could wash up in the archipelago. After preliminary examinations, Malaysian transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, has told The Star newspaper the parts found were “not related to MH370 and not even plane material”. Liow said investigators would continue to examine any unidentified flotsam found on the Maldives for links to MH370. According to drift models calculated by Australia, which is in charge of the underwater search for the wreckage of MH370, debris from the plane would not have travelled as far north as the Maldives.
Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, last week said experts had "conclusively confirmed” the flaperon found in Reunion Island came from MH370. Nevertheless, finding and matching the wing flap has yet to yield clues about the cause of the aircraft’s apparent crash. Safety experts anticipate weeks of extensive laboratory effort, including microscopic and ultrasonic examinations to try to determine precisely what forces broke the flaperon off the aircraft’s wing. From that data, investigators hope to move closer to deducing the possible speed and angle of attack when the aircraft hit the water.
Malaysia's government Bernama news agency has published a new theory which suggested MH370 glided downwards and landed with soft impact on the southern Indian Ocean, quoting Malaysian satellite expert Zaaim Redha Abdul Rahman. He believed the plane "floated for a while" before sinking into the deep sea "in one piece". "It [the flaperon] was only slightly damaged and was just encrusted with barnacles. Its appearance indicates it was not violently torn from the aircraft's main body. It does seem it got detached pretty nicely at its edges," Zaaim Redha said.
In other MAS news, the Sabah and Sarawak state governments have reiterated their interest in acquiring its regional arm, MASwings, from Khazanah Nasional.
