The Malaysian airline flight MH370 vanished from its route on the 8th of March 2014 and has continued to be the most mysterious cases of all times. The reason behind its going off the grid has still not been clear. The search for the carrier of 239 passengers has proved to be costly and unsuccessful.
Its last contact with the air traffic control was when it was flying over the South China Sea. The Malaysian military radar kept track of the plane till it drifted westwards and finally disappeared for good.
Numerous underwater searches have been conducted in order to unearth the mystery. The speculated reasons have ranged from lack of oxygen to a destructive pilot. The case saw a ray of hope when there was some debris found near Mozambique and Australia. But, there was never a clear explanation about the course of events that led to this fate.
However, there has been information that has emerged in order to build the picture of the probable cause of the accident. A new report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says that the flight was seen shooting towards the sea with a high rate of descent. The plane’s landing flaps were also stowed which confirms that the passengers and crew were not preparing for a water landing.
The reports also suggest that there was no one controlling the plane before it crashed. Theories suggest that there could be a fire which led to a shortage of oxygen in the cabin or a breach in one of the windows. Due to these reasons, the passengers and crew might have been dead much before the plane ran out of fuel and was seen descending into the Indian Ocean.
So far, 11,000 square kilometers of deep sea search for the remainder of MH370. But, there’s hardly anything to prove it. Officials suggest that final conclusion is close to impossible till such time the exact location of the Boeing 777 is found through satellite coverage.
There are also speculations that suggest towards someone still controlling the plane towards the end of its flight. But that complicates the search operations further more as it would increase the possible area of crash by three times.
Peter Foley, the bureau’s director suggests that the study of the wing flap found in Tanzania suggests that it was not deployed. This further suggests that the Boeing was not controlled and the area being search is in fact, the only area to find possible wreckage.
A summit was held in Canberra in order to examine the performed search and possibilities for further search with a team including international and Australian experts. Up till now, 20 parts of debris has been discovered, that are either speculated or confirmed to be of MH370. But the sonar search conducted underwater led to no successful findings.
However, the search will continue further as planned in hopes of discovering something else related to the plane going missing. Barring the deep sea search, no other sort of search has been scheduled yet.
The planned search of the remaining area will be complete by early 2017 and the team does not plan on extending this search unless concrete evidence if found.
The current operation is to find where exactly did the first piece of debris come from. The study will look into the place from where it might have drifted towards Tanzania, which could be helpful in finding the major part of the debris.