Malaysian MH370 - Latest - Curt Lewis

Breakthrough in hunt for MH370
















Flight MH370 was a Boeing 777.

New evidence released by the air safety bureau may have determined the area in which MH370 disappeared three and a half years ago.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released a pair of reports which analysed data gathered during the search for the Malaysian Airlines flight.

They feature satellite images and drift modelling from debris washed up in the Western Indian Ocean.

That drift modelling initially released late last year identified a new area of 25,000sq km just outside the original search area.

The CSIRO's reverse drift modelling have now refined down to an area of 5000sq km, isolating the most likely location of MH370.

Greg Hood, Chief Commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), urged caution on the new findings.















The MH370 search area has been narrowed down.

"Clearly we must be cautious," Mr Hood said. "These objects have not been definitely identified as MH370 debris."

"Geoscience Australia identified a number of objects in the satellite imagery which have been classified as probably man-made.

"The image resolution is not high enough to be certain whether the objects originated from MH370 or are other objects that might be found floating in oceans around the world."

The ATSB reports here

Images taken by a French Military satellite show apparent debris were discarded by governments and authorities in late March 2014 - before the ATSB became involved in the search.

The area covered by the imagery was not one that was searched from the air at that time, but is close to the underwater search area.

GeoScience Australia has been examining satellite images taken in the weeks after the loss of MH370 in an area identified last year and found 12 objects considered to be man made, and 28 possibly man made.

Mr Hood said "the information contained within the Geoscience Australia and CSIRO reports may be useful in informing any further search effort that may be mounted in the future".