MH370 plunged rapidly, wing flaps not out
MISSING Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 appeared to be out of control when it plunged into the ocean, with the wing flaps not prepared for landing, a new report in Australia said yesterday.
The report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found 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, found off Tanzania, showed 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.
“This report contains important new information on what we believe happened at the end of MH370’s flight,” Australia’s Transport Minister Darren Chester said at the start of a three-day meeting in Canberra where experts will plan the final stages of the search.
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 main wreckage has been found.
Investigators confirmed that three pieces of debris recovered along western Indian Ocean shorelines came from MH370. There are currently more than 20 items of debris still being investigated which were found on the coasts of Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues.
More than 110,000 square kilometres of a 120,000 sq km search arc have been scoured so far and the operation is due to wrap up in