Indian Ocean at sunset
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak announced today that he believes Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 carrying more than 200 people crashed in the southern Indian Ocean and there are no survivors.
Fox News is reporting that although no objects have yet to be retrieved, sightings of large debris in the southern Indian Ocean are leading authorities to believe that Flight 370 crashed into one of the most remote areas of the world.
Analysis of satellite imagery showing debris in the suspected crash area taken by the Chinese, Australians and French, has led experts at the British satellite company Inmarsat and UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch to believe the plane has been lost.
“Based on their new analysis….MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth,” Razak said today. “This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore, with deep sadness and regret, that I must inform you that according to this new data that flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”
Evidence is apparently certain enough that relatives of the passengers in Malaysia were booked on charter flights to take them to Australia. Razak also said that an emergency meeting between families and Malaysian Airline officials has taken place in Beijing.
“For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. I know this news must be harder still,” Razak said.
Sightings of the debris have been increasing over the last few days as investigators zero-in on a remove section of the Indian Ocean where Chinese satellites first spotted debris last weekend. More debris was spotted today.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed that a crew of an Australian P3 Orion plane located two objects in the search zone – a grey or green circular object and an orange rectangular object. The crew photographed the objects but it will not be clear if they are part of the submerged airliner until they are recovered.
“They could be flotsam,” Abbott said during a news conference. “Nevertheless we are hopeful that we can recover these objects soon and that they will take us a step closer to resolving this tragic mystery.”
Spotters on board two Chinese aircraft also spotted two large objects and several smaller ones spread across several square miles in the search area.
Another interesting piece of evidence came to light on Saturday after spotters in a search plane saw what appeared to be a wooden pallet surrounded by straps of different lengths and colors. Although these are more commonly found on cargo ships, an official with Malaysian Airlines confirmed on Sunday that Flight 370 was carrying wooden pallets that fit this description.
Just in case the latest information does indeed result in a bona fide debris filed, the U.S. Pacific command said today that it was sending a black box locator known as the Towed Pinger Locator into the area. This device is pulled behind another vessel and very slow speeds and uses its highly sensitive listening capabilities to locate the ping of a black box down to a depth of about 20,000 feet.
“This movement is simply a prudent effort to preposition equipment and trained personnel closer to the search area so that if debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box’s pinger is limited,” said Cmdr. Chris Budde, a U.S. 7th Fleet operations officer.
While investigators are stopping short of calling this a break in the case of the missing jetliner, these are the most promising leads yet in the search.
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