Wing part found on Mauritius confirmed to be part of MH370

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A piece of an aircraft wing found on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius has been identified as belonging to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Malaysian and Australian officials said Friday.

The piece of wing flap was found in May and subsequently analyzed by experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane in a remote stretch of ocean off Australia’s west coast. Investigators used a part number found on the debris to link it to the missing Boeing 777, the agency said in a statement. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai also confirmed the identification.

Several pieces of wreckage from the plane have washed ashore on coastlines around the Indian Ocean since the aircraft vanished with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

So far, none of the debris has helped narrow down the precise location of the main underwater wreckage. Investigators need to find that in order to locate the flight data recorders that could help explain why the plane veered so far off-course.

Search crews are expected to finish their sweep of the 120,000 square kilometer (46,000 square mile) search zone in the Indian Ocean by December.

Oceanographers have been analyzing wing flaps found in Tanzania and on the French island of La Reunion to see if they might be able to identify a potential new search area through drift modeling. But any new search would require more funding; Malaysia, Australia and China said in July that the $160 million hunt will be suspended once the current stretch of ocean is exhausted unless new evidence emerges that would pinpoint a specific location of the aircraft. </s> SYDNEY: A piece of wing debris found in Mauritius is from MH370, Australia said Friday, the latest fragment discovered along western Indian Ocean shorelines that has been linked to the missing passenger jet.

The composite debris, recovered from the Indian Ocean island nation in May, “was a trailing edge section of Boeing 777 left, outboard flap, originating from the Malaysian Airlines aircraft registered 9M-MRO (MH370)”, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said in a report.

The government agency is leading the search for the Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines plane — which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 passengers and crew — in the southern Indian Ocean far off Western Australia’s coast.

“A part number was identified on a section of the debris,” the ATSB said, adding that another “unique work order number” assigned by the flap manufacturer corresponded to MH370.

The report came two weeks after the ATSB said officials had yet to link debris recovered from Madagascar by US amateur investigator Blaine Gibson to MH370 or a Boeing 777.

Officials also said that the debris found in Madagascar was not exposed to fire, quashing earlier speculation.

No trace of MH370 has been recovered from the current 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) search zone, fuelling speculation it may have crashed outside the area.

But several pieces of debris linked to the flight have been discovered along western Indian Ocean shorelines — in Mozambique, South Africa and Mauritius.

The first piece found was a two-metre (six-foot) wing part known as a flaperon that washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion in July 2015.

More than 110,000 square kilometres of the search area has been scoured so far, Australia said last month, adding that the hunt was set to be completed in December. – AFP </s> KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia confirms that debris found in Mauritius came from missing Flight 370. </s> PUTRAJAYA: Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) experts have concluded that the debris found on Mauritius island was from the vanished Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the finding marked the latest piece of debris that had been examined, analysed and confirmed to have originated from aircraft 9M-MRO, also known as MH370, following the confirmation of the Tanzania debris last month.

“From a part number found on a section of the debris, the piece has been identified as a trailing edge splice strap, incorporated into the rear spar assembly of a Boeing 777 left outboard flap. This is also consistent with the appearance and construction of the debris,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Liow added that adjacent to the part number was a second part identifier. He said the flap manufacturer supplied records indicating that the work order number was incorporated into the outboard flap shipset line number 404, corresponds to the Boeing 777 aircraft line number 404, and registered as 9M-MRO (MH370).

Flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The jetliner has yet to be found despite a massive search operation in the southern Indian Ocean, where the aircraft was believed to have ended its flight after diverting from its original route.

On July 22 this year, Malaysia, China and Australia said the search for the missing aircraft would be suspended upon completion of the 120,000 sq km sweep of the ocean. — Bernama </s> SYDNEY: Missing Malaysian Air 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 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 – which was 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.

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,” 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 jet has been found.

Investigators have however confirmed that three pieces of debris recovered along western Indian Ocean shorelines came from MH370.

More than 110,000 square kilometres of a 120,000-square-kilometre search arc have been scoured so far and the operation is due to wrap up in early 2017.

The findings of the ATSB’s new report, which analysed satellite data, end-of-flight simulations, recovered sections of the plane and debris drift modelling, confirm extensive testing by US manufacturer Boeing and the Australian defence department.

Experts at the meeting will “review all the available data and analysis associated with the search to date”, Chester said in a statement.

Their findings will “inform the remainder of the search effort, and develop guidance for any future search operations.” — AFP

“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,” he added.

Ongoing drift analysis also suggested the search was in the right place, the ATSB 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 was fully scoured unless “credible new information” emerged. – AFP </s> Timeline of the 3-year search for missing Malaysia plane

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The end of the deep-sea sonar search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 leaves the largest and most technologically challenging search in aviation history unresolved. Some of the key moments in the search:

March 8, 2014: Air traffic control loses contact with the plane 40 minutes into a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. An air and sea search begins four hours later in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea.

March 15, 2014: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announces that Flight 370 was tracked by military radar doubling back across the Strait of Malacca and was sending satellite signals seven and a half hours after takeoff. The aircraft then flew either northwest toward central Asia as far as Kazakhstan or southwest over the southern Indian Ocean. Signal analysis quickly ruled out the northern flight path.

April 8, 2014: An Australian ship towing a U.S. Navy listening device hears two signals consistent with Flight 370's flight recorders west of Australia. Submerged a month, the recorders are near the end of their battery lives. "I'm now optimistic that we will find the aircraft, or what is left of the aircraft, in the not-too-distant future," search coordinator Angus Houston says. When the initial sonar search yields nothing, it's expanded to an area of 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles).

April 28, 2014: The air search ends after failing to see a single piece of debris in 4.6 million square kilometers (1.8 million square miles) of ocean.

May 28, 2014: The underwater survey near where the acoustic signals were detected ends, with investigators concluding the area is not the final resting place of Flight 370 and they may never know the signals' origins.

June 26, 2014: Officials announce that Flight 370 most likely crashed southwest of the most recently suspected crash site, about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) off Australia's west coast. The new 60,000-square kilometer (23,000-square mile) search area falls within the waters already searched by air, to no avail.

Aug. 28, 2014: The search area is refined south after analysis of a failed attempted satellite phone call to Flight 370 suggests the plane turned south earlier than previously thought.

Jan. 29, 2015: Malaysia formally declares Flight 370 an accident and says all 239 people on board are presumed dead, upsetting families but letting them obtain death certificates and start legal claims.

March 8, 2015: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott doubles the area of the search to 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles). Still, only 40 percent of the original zone has been searched. "It can't go on forever, but as long as there are reasonable leads, the search will go on," Abbott said. "We are reasonably confident of finding the plane."

March 10, 2015: The sonar search discovers the wreck of a 19th century cargo ship nearly 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) below the surface.

July 29, 2015: A wing part known as a flaperon found on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar, is confirmed as the first piece of the Boeing 777 to be recovered. More than 20 pieces certainly or highly likely to be parts of Flight 370 have since been found on coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean.

Dec. 19, 2015: The sonar search discovers a second shipwreck from the 19th century.

July 28, 2016: Australian officials confirm that data recovered from a home flight simulator owned by Flight 370 captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah showed that someone had used the device to plot a course to the southern Indian Ocean, bolstering speculation that he stole the plane in a premeditated plot.

Dec. 20, 2016: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau releases a report that says Flight 370 is unlikely to be in the 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) that has been almost completely searched and is more likely in a 25,000-square kilometer (9,700-square mile) area immediately to the north. </s> A fresh analysis of the final moments of doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 suggests no one was controlling the plane when it plunged into the ocean, according to a report released by investigators on Wednesday, as experts hunting for the aircraft gathered in Australia's capital to discuss the fading search effort.

A technical report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which leads the search, seems to support the theory investigators have long favored: that no one was at the controls of the Boeing 777 when it ran out of fuel and dove at high speed into a remote patch of the Indian Ocean off western Australia in 2014.

In recent months, critics have increasingly been pushing the alternate theory that someone was still controlling the plane at the end of its flight. If that was the case, the aircraft could have glided much farther, tripling in size the possible area where it could have crashed and further complicating the already hugely complex effort to find it.

PILOT'S MID-FLIGHT PROPOSAL DELIGHTS GIRLFRIEND AND PASSENGERS

But Wednesday's report shows that the latest analysis of satellite data is consistent with the plane being in a "high and increasing rate of descent" in its final moments. The report also said that an analysis of a wing flap that washed ashore in Tanzania indicates the flap was likely not deployed when it broke off the plane. A pilot would typically extend the flaps during a controlled ditching.

Peter Foley, the bureau's director of Flight 370 search operations, has previously said that if the flap was not deployed, it would almost certainly rule out the theory that the plane entered the water in a controlled ditch and would effectively validate that searchers are looking in the right place for the wreckage.

"(It) means the aircraft wasn't configured for a landing or a ditching — you can draw your own conclusions as to whether that means someone was in control," Foley told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday. "You can never be 100 percent. We are very reluctant to express absolute certainty."

The report's release comes as a team of international and Australian experts begin a three-day summit in Canberra to re-examine all the data associated with the hunt for the plane, which vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

PLANE EVACUATED AFTER POSSIBLE BOMB THREAT AT FORT LAUDERDALE AIRPORT

More than 20 items of debris suspected or confirmed to be from the plane have washed ashore on coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean. But a deep-sea sonar search for the main underwater wreckage has found nothing. Crews are expect to complete their sweep of the 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) search zone by early next year and officials have said there are no plans to extend the hunt unless new evidence emerges that would pinpoint a specific location of the aircraft.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said experts involved in this week's summit will be working on guidance for any potential future search operations.

Experts have been preemptively trying to define a new search area by studying where in the Indian Ocean the first piece of wreckage recovered from the plane — a wing flap known as a flaperon — most likely drifted from after the plane crashed.

Several replica flaperons were set adrift to see whether it is the wind or the currents that primarily affect how they move across the water. The results of that experiment have been factored into a fresh drift analysis of the debris. The preliminary results of that analysis, published in Wednesday's report, suggest the debris may have originated in the current search area, or to its north. The transport bureau cautioned that the analysis is ongoing and those results are likely to be refined. </s> Three years after the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian Airline flight MH370, the three countries collaborating in the search for the missing aircraft have announced a suspension of the search.

Flight MH370 disappeared en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board and a statement from China, Malaysia and Australia who were leading search efforts disclosed, “Despite every effort using the best science available … the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,”

Much of the search has been focused on the Indian Ocean sea floor but the only debris of the plane were found washed up on Mauritius, the French island Reunion and an island off the coast of Tanzania.

A support group for the families of the victims called Voice 370 criticized the decision to halt the search. “In our view, extending the search to the new area defined by the experts is an inescapable duty owed to the flying public in the interest of aviation safety,” Voice 370 said. </s> A new scan of the Indian Ocean floor for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been expanded after search vessels exhausted the main area where the doomed plane was believed to be resting.

The search enters its final phase this week, more than four years after the jet went down.

Ocean Infinity, the US underwater technology company searching for MH370 were so confident of success they agreed they would only be paid if the missing aircraft was found. But as time runs out, they face ending up empty handed on both fronts.

Nearly 80,000sqkm have been searched since January without finding any sign of the wreckage.

But the company says they’re still determined to find it.

This comes despite earlier hopes that a 25,000sqkm area most likely to contain the missing aircraft MH370 had been identified.

Ocean Infinity said in an update that it had scanned up to 1300sqkm a day since launching its mission far off the WA coast in late January.

It has searched both inside and outside an area identified by Australian authorities and said its lack of success had led it to look further north than the main search area.

“Whilst it’s disappointing there has been no sign of MH370 in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau search area and further north, there is still some search time remaining,” Ocean Infinity chief executive officer Oliver Plunkett said.

“Everyone at Ocean Infinity remains absolutely determined for the remainder of the search.

“As the team head in to port after another six weeks’ hard work, I am pleased to say our technology has performed exceptionally well throughout the search and that we have collected significant amounts of high quality data in which we have full confidence. The results from the highly challenging Broken Ridge feature are particularly impressive.”

The search vessel Seabed Constructor headed to Fremantle for resupply and crew rotation before resuming its search.

This will be the last phase of the search, before weather will make further scanning not worthwhile.

Flight MH370 disappeared March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people aboard. No transmissions were received from the aircraft after its first 38 minutes of flight, but it is believed to have crashed in the far southern Indian Ocean based on the drift patterns of crash debris that washed ashore on distant beaches.

More than 20 bits of debris suspected or confirmed to be from MH370 have washed ashore on coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean.

Parts of his article originally appeared in The Sun and are republished here with permission.
Authorities confirm that a wing part found in Mauritius in May is part of the aircraft from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.