Drift modelling to find MH370

– Replicas of a large piece of debris from missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 will be set adrift and tracked by satellite in the hope of helping find the plane’s crash site, Australian officials said yesterday.

Canberra is leading the search for the aircraft which vanished in 2014 with 239 people onboard.

The Australian government said the new drift modelling study involves setting adrift ocean drifter buoys used in a global drifter programme along with models of the flaperon (the first MH370 debris that washed up) which have been fitted with satellite trackers. “The models will be tracked to establish the rate and direction of drift,” investigators said.

Real-life drift data will then be used to model the movement of the flaperon in the hope that the aircraft can be located underwater. – AFP