On March 8 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 departs Kuala Lumpur International Airport bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board. Half an hour later, the plane disappears from radar.
A new report by Australian investigators into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 suggests the aircraft’s flaps were not extended when it crashed, effectively ruling out the possibility of a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean.
An analysis of data associated with the plane’s final communications to and from the satellite was also “consistent with the aircraft being in a high and increasing rate of descent at that time”, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau advised.
The findings, presented in a report released on Wednesday, are significant because they cast doubt on the “controlled descent” theory being pushed by some observers and elements of the media. Instead, they support the theory that the plane entered an uncontrolled dive when it ran out of fuel over the Indian Ocean.
Analysis of debris from the plane’s right wing, confirmed to belong to MH370, found some of the damage was “consistent with the flaps in the retracted position”, leading investigators to conclude “the right outboard flap was most likely in the retracted position at the time it separated from the wing”. The right flaperon was most likely at or close to the neutral position at the time of the crash, the report said.
In the controlled descent scenario, a rogue pilot – most likely the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah – was at the controls and conscious when the flight with 239 souls on board hit the water somewhere in the vast Indian Ocean. In a controlled ditching, the plane could have flown further and crashed south of the current search area.
A large piece of aircraft wreckage, discovered in July, washed up on Reunion Island has been confirmed as part of MH370’s wing.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 pictured during an earlier journey.
The Transport Safety Bureau previously said that if the wreckage was not found in the current search area, the next most likely scenario was that someone was at the controls and glided the plane beyond the current area. The bureau’s critics have argued it should have accepted the likelihood of this rogue pilot possibility from the beginning, but the latest finding backs the bureau’s favoured hypothesis.
Prior to the release of the report, the head of the Transport Safety Bureau’s search effort Peter Foley indicated the analysis of the flap position would be crucial to understanding the flight’s final minutes and whether investigators were looking in the right place.
“The rate of descent combined with the position of the flap, if it’s found that it is not deployed, will almost certainly rule out either a controlled ditch or glide,” he said in August. “If it’s not in a deployed state, it validates, if you like, where we’ve been looking.”
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 . The rogue pilot explanation is just one explanation in the search for the missing plane.
INDIAN OCEAN – This handout Satellite image made available by the AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) shows a map of the planned search area for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 on March 21, 2014. Australian authorities yesterday received satellite imagery that shows two large objects in the Indian Ocean that may be debris from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The airliner went missing nearly two weeks ago carrying 239 passengers and crew on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. (Photo by AMSA via Getty Images)
Australia’s Transport Minister, Darren Chester, said Wednesday’s report contained important information on “what we believe” happened to MH370, and this week’s summit would “inform the remainder of the search effort, and develop guidance for any future search operations”.
MH370 disappeared from radar in March 2014 during a scheduled night-time flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. So-called “handshake” signals between the aircraft and satellites revealed the plane flew on for hours on an arc over the Indian Ocean.
So far, more than 20 items of debris of interest to the investigation team have been found off the coasts of Africa and Madagascar, and the islands of Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues. But most major parts of the wreckage continue to elude search teams. – SMH
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