Jump to content
MalaysianWings - Malaysia's Premier Aviation Portal
Ashley Lee

MAS B772 9M-MRO Flight MH370 KUL-PEK Missing with All 239 POB Presumed Killed

Recommended Posts

MH370 search team raises prospect plane could lie elsewhere

SYDNEY | BY JONATHAN BARRETT AND SWATI PANDEY

 

Business | Thu Jul 21, 2016 5:49am EDT

 

Top searchers at the Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 say they believe the plane may have glided down rather than dived in the final moments, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean for two years.

 

Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew onboard en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Searchers led by engineering group Fugro (FUGRc.AS) have been combing an area roughly the size of Greece for two years.

That search, over 120,000 square kilometers of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia, is expected to end in three months and could be called off after that following a meeting of key countries Malaysia, China and Australia on Friday.

The three countries agreed in April 2015 that should the aircraft not be located within the search area, and in the absence of any new credible evidence, the search area would not be extended. So far, nothing has been found.

"If it's not there, it means it's somewhere else," Fugro project director Paul Kennedy told Reuters.

Kennedy does not exclude extreme possibilities that could have made the plane impossible to spot in the search zone, and still hopes to find the craft. But he and his team argue another option is the plane glided down - meaning it was manned at the end - and made it beyond the area marked out by calculations from satellite images.

"If it was manned it could glide for a long way," Kennedy said. "You could glide it for further than our search area is, so I believe the logical conclusion will be well maybe that is the other scenario."

Doubts that the search teams are looking in the right place will likely fuel calls for all data to be made publicly available so that academics and rival companies can pursue an "open source" solution - a collaborative public answer to the airline industry's greatest mystery.

Fugro's controlled glide hypothesis is also the first time officials have leant some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight's final moments.

Since the crash there have been competing theories over whether one, both or no pilots were in control, whether it was hijacked - or whether all aboard perished and the plane was not controlled at all when it hit the water. Adding to the mystery, investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off the plane's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles.

The glide view is not supported by the investigating agencies: America's Boeing Co (BA.N), France's Thales SA (TCFP.PA), U.S. investigator the National Transportation Safety Board, British satellite company Inmarsat PLC(ISA.L), the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

CARRY ON

The meeting between officials from China, Australia and Malaysia is expected to discuss the future of the search. The three governments have previously agreed that unless any new credible evidence arises the search would not be extended, despite calls from victims' families.

Any further search would require a fresh round of funding from the three governments on top of the almost A$180 million ($137 million) that has already been spent, making it the most expensive in aviation history.

Deciding the search area in 2014, authorities assumed the plane had no "inputs" during its final descent, meaning there was no pilot or no conscious pilot. They believe it was on auto-pilot and spiraled when it ran out of fuel.

But Kennedy said a skilled pilot could glide the plane approximately 120 miles (193 km) from its cruising altitude after running out of fuel. One pilot told Reuters it would be slightly less than that.

For the aircraft to continue gliding after fuel has run out, someone must manually put the aircraft into a glide – nose down with controlled speed.

"If you lose all power, the auto-pilot kicks out. If there is nobody at the controls, the aircraft will plummet down," said a captain with experience flying Boeing 777s - the same as MH370.

Like all pilots interviewed for this story, he declined to be named given the controversy around the lost jet.

Fugro works on a "confidence level" of 95 percent, a statistical measurement used, in Fugro's case, to indicate how certain the plane debris was not in the area they have already combed, a seabed peppered with steep cliffs and underwater volcanoes.

"The end-of-flight scenarios are absolutely endless," Fugro managing director Steve Duffield said. "Which wing ran out of fuel first, did it roll this way or did it tip that way?"

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency coordinating the search, has consistently defended the defined search zone. It did not immediately respond to questions over whether it was assessing the controlled glide theory.

Authorities used data provided by Inmarsat to locate the likely plunge point through communication between the plane and satellite ground station.

"All survey data collected from the search for missing flight MH370 will be released," an ATSB spokesman said.

(Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy in SINGAPORE; Editing by Clara Ferreira Marques and Ryan Woo)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-airlines-mh-idUSKCN1010A4?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5790893604d301103d0b778e&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Edited by xtemujin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

He is incorrect about intact fuselage. Pieces were found to be coming from the cabin such as the cabin divider panel with silvery swoosh motifs, and recently an item looking like the IFE screen frame with coat hook from the economy seat.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

"A new report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) suggests the plane was in a “high and increasing rate of descent” at the time of its final satellite communications"

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/02/asia/mh370-crash-landing-report/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/02/mh370-australia-new-search-data-plane-plummeted-ocean

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
MH370: new report proposes shifting plane search to unexplored area

Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau reveals it is ‘confident’ aircraft not in underwater zone that has been explored so far

 

Tuesday 20 December 2016 02.44 GMT

 

 

But experts meeting in Canberra to reassess existing evidence and analysis say they are now confident the wreck of the plane is not there.

 

“There is a high degree of confidence that the previously identified underwater area searched to date does not contain the missing aircraft.”

New analysis of the satellite data, combined with drift analysis, has identified the most likely point that MH370 hit the water as being close to the so-called “seventh arc”, north of the current search zone.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/20/mh370-new-report-proposes-shifting-plane-search-to-unexplored-area

Edited by xtemujin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

http://jacc.gov.au/media/communiques/2017/com005.aspx

 

THE SEARCH HAS BEEN SUSPENDED

 

Today the last search vessel has left the underwater search area. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not been located in the 120,000 square-kilometre underwater search area in the southern Indian Ocean.

 

Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft.

Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended.

 

The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness. It is consistent with decisions made by our three countries in the July 2016 Ministerial Tripartite meeting in Putrajaya Malaysia.

Whilst combined scientific studies have continued to refine areas of probability, to date no new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft.

 

We have been overwhelmed by the commitment and dedication shown by the hundreds of people involved in the search, which has been an unprecedented challenge. Their tireless work has continued to improve our knowledge of the search area and has been critical in our efforts to locate the aircraft. We would like to reiterate our utmost appreciation to the many nations that have provided expertise and assistance since the early days of this unfortunate tragedy.

 

Todays announcement is significant for our three countries, but more importantly for the family and friends of those on board the aircraft. We again take this opportunity to honour the memory of those who have lost their lives and acknowledge the enormous loss felt by their loved ones.

 

We remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hard to believe that in a few hours, it will be 3 years since we woke up to the tragic news of the loss of 9M-MRO and the 239 souls on board. Never imagined it would remain a mystery even to this date. :(

May they all rest in peace and may their loved ones find the strength to push on each and every day.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Malaysia Air, which lost a wide-body jet with 239 people aboard three years ago in one of historys most enduring aviation mysteries, has become the first airline to sign an agreement for space-based flight tracking of its aircraft.

 

The subsidiary of Malaysian Airline System Bhd reached a deal with Aireon LLC, SITAONAIR and FlightAware LLC to enable it to monitor the flight paths of its aircraft anywhere in the world including over the polar regions and the most remote oceans, according to an emailed press release from Aireon.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-18/malaysia-air-is-first-airline-to-track-planes-with-satellites

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The "subsidiary" of Malaysian Airline System Berhad? What might that be? Firefly or MASWings?

 

Thought it has been renamed to Malaysia Airlines Bernard?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They got the name wrong! What's so hard about getting the name of Malaysia Airways right?

Classic ..... nice :lol:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Debris recovered off Seychelles may be from missing Malaysia airlines flight 370

 

UPDATED : Friday, 14 Jul 2017, 12:48AM

 

 

http://m.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/2102581/debris-recovered-seychelles-may-be-missing-malaysia-airlines?utm_content=buffer48c1f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Edited by xtemujin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think that picture of the RR fragment has been around for a while already. The image is probably not of the latest debris find in Seychelles.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ATSB details MH370 captain's simulation of Indian Ocean route

 

 

 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has published details about data gleaned from the personal flight simulator of MH370 captain Zaharie Shah.
"Six weeks before the accident flight the [pilot-in-command] had used his simulator to fly a route, initially similar to part of the route flown by MH370 up the Straits of Malacca, with a left-hand turn and track into the southern Indian Ocean. There were enough similarities to the flight path of MH370 for the ATSB to carefully consider the possible implications for the underwater search area."
Full article:

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/atsb-details-mh370-captains-simulation-of-indian-o-441735/

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...