Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 appeared to be out of control when it plunged into the ocean, with the wing flaps not prepared for a landing, a new report said yesterday.
The report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found that the plane’s final satellite communications were “consistent with the aircraft being in a high and increasing rate of descent” when it vanished.
Analysis of the right outboard flap — which was found off Tanzania — showed that it was “most likely in the retracted position at the time it separated from the wing,” suggesting the plane was not configured for landing before it smashed into the ocean.
The bureau noted that the width of the defined search area was appropriate “to encompass all uncontrolled descent scenarios from the simulations.”
“This report contains important new information on what we believe happened at the end of MH370’s flight,” Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said at the start of a three-day meeting in Canberra where experts are to plan the final stages of the search.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew.
Despite a massive underwater hunt far off Western Australia’s coast, no trace of the jet has been found.
However, investigators have confirmed that three pieces of debris recovered along western Indian Ocean shorelines came from MH370.
More than 110,000km2 of a 120,000km2 search arc have been scoured so far and the operation is due to wrap up early next year.
The findings of the new report, which analyzed satellite data, end-of-flight simulations, recovered sections of the plane and debris drift modeling, confirm extensive testing by US manufacturer Boeing and the Australian Department of Defence.
Experts at the meeting are to “review all the available data and analysis associated with the search to date,” Chester said in a statement.
Their findings are to “inform the remainder of the search effort and develop guidance for any future search operations,” he said. “There are currently more than 20 items of debris of interest to the investigation team which have been located on the coasts of Africa, Madagascar, the island of Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues.”
Ongoing drift analysis also suggested the search was in the right place, the report said, noting it was “unlikely debris originated south of the current search area.”
“The northernmost regions were also found to be less likely,” it added.
The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China, where most of the passengers were from, this year agreed to pull the plug on the operation once the search area is fully scoured unless “credible new information” emerges.
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