KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — A marine exploration company based in Australia believes it may have found the wreckage site of Flight MH370 in the Bay of Bengal, some 5,000km north of an ongoing multination hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
Australian news channel 7News reported today GeoResonance saying its research identified elements on the ocean floor in the Bay of Bengal consistent with material from a Boeing 777 plane, which matches the missing jetliner that disappeared in the early hours of March 8.
“We identified chemical elements and materials that make up a Boeing 777... these are aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials,” Pavel Kursa, a spokeman from GeoResonance was quoted saying.
GeoResonance’s company scientists reportedly searched two million square kilometres of the possible crash area with the use of over 20 technologies, including a nuclear reactor, to analyse satellite data and aircraft images to trace the missing Boeing 77-200ER’S last known location.
“Our team was very excited when we found what we believe to be the wreckage of a commercial airliner,” another GeoResonance spokesman, David Pope, was quoted saying.
Pope said the company’s experts compared their findings with images taken on March 5, three days before Flight MH370 was reported missing — and they did not find what they had detected at that spot.
“The wreckage wasn’t there prior to the disappearance of MH370. We’re not trying to say that it definitely is MH370, however it is a lead we feel should be followed up,” Pope told 7News.
7News reported that it tried to contact the office of Angus Houston, a retired Australian air marshal who is coordinating the 26-nation search for the plane in the southern area of the Indian Ocean, but has yet to receive a response.
The Beijing-bound plane carrying 239 people on board disappeared from civilian aviation radars less than an hour after departing the Kuala Lumpur International Airport here.
It was spotted on military radar, which showed it making a turn back west, shortly after.
However, the plane did not send out any distress signals, adding to the mystery of its disappearance.
Satellite data showed the plane ended its flight over the Indian Ocean.
