Report: MH370 plunged at high speed
Print Edition
MH370 plunged into the ocean at high speed — up to 6,096 meters a minute — reinforcing analysis that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the current search zone, a report said yesterday.
The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard, most of them Chinese.
An extensive underwater hunt in the southern Indian Ocean has not yet found the crash site, fueling speculation it may be outside the current search zone, particularly if someone was at the controls at the end of the flight.
A manned plane could have been glided down, allowing it to enter the water outside the 120,000-square-kilometer area being searched, some aviation experts have suggested.
But extensive testing by aircraft manufacturer Boeing and new Australian defense department data analysis both suggest that — regardless of the possible actions of one or both of the pilots — the jet dived into the ocean at high speed, The Australian reported.
Once MH370 ran out of fuel and the engines flamed, it slowed before plunging down toward the water in a series of swoops — dropping from 10,668 meters at a rate of between 3,658 meters a minute and 6,096 meters a minute, Boeing said, according to the report.
The sharp dive was confirmed by a new data analysis by Australia’s defense department involving signals sent automatically between the plane and a satellite, the head of the agency leading the MH370 hunt said.
Australian Transport and Safety Bureau chief Greg Hood said this supported the view MH370 “was likely to have crashed in the 120,000-square-kilometre area now being searched,” the paper said.
The area was defined under the ATSB’s “most likely” scenario that no one was at the controls and the plane ran out of fuel.
“The Australians leading the search do not doubt that the pilot may well have been responsible for the jet’s disappearance but they say critics of the search strategy are wrong to assume that means they are looking in the wrong place,” the report added.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
