Analysis confirms ‘highest probability’ search is on the right track, as deputy PM Warren Truss says three-quarters of ‘hot spot’ area has been scoured

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Australian authorities believe they are searching in the right place for the missing airliner MH370, which disappeared on 8 March last year.

Three quarters of a “hot spot” area within the search zone had been scoured, the deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

Réunion debris is from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, French prosecutor says Read more

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said earlier new analysis had reaffirmed “the highest probability” that the aircraft was located in the search zone.

The search for the Malaysia Airlines plane has been focusing on a 120,000 sq km arc of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

A flaperon from the Boeing 777-200ER washed up on remote Réunion Island in July, but no other trace of the plane has been found.

The search for the plane is being led by retired Air Chief Marshall Sir Angus Houston, a former head of the Australian defence force.

MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board. The final flight path of the plane, why it diverted thousands of kilometres off course, and what caused it to disappear, remain a mystery.

The plane is understood to have turned west off its flight path. After disappearing from civilian radar, it was picked up by military radar over the Gulf of Thailand.

Analysis of satellite communications later traced the plane to the Indian Ocean.

However, no sign of the plane was found until the flaperon washed ashore on Réunion – a French overseas department off the east coast of Madagascar – on 29 July.



A month-long search of the island’s coastland found no further debris and the search was called off.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau report released on Thursday shows the key search area is an arc running south-west, roughly 700km long.

An area of “highest probability” has been identified near the centre of the arc.

But the ATSB report stressed that search results, and any other new information, was being constantly evaluated.

“Any further evidence that becomes available, and may be relevant to refining the search area, will be considered.”

The report says information known about the plane’s final movements and activity, demonstrate there was no attempt by pilots to deliberately ditch the plane in the ocean: “This evidence is ... inconsistent with a controlled ditching scenario.”



