First topic message reminder :

Malaysia Airlines said it lost contact with a plane carrying 239 people on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The plane disappeared on March 8, the problem is, with so little directional information to start with (six and a partial seventh ping, transmitted at hourly intervals), are we SURE we are even searching the right ocean? Why have we heard NOTHING from Rolls Royce re the real time engine management monitoring system? If those following the serious clues left available there is only one question to ask. Why does no one mention the Indian Oceans most advanced and secure air base, the stationary Aircraft Carrier located south of the southern tip of India called Diego Garcia? Not a peep. Not even an indication of a US managed military installation that monitors everything in this war region. In fact the best old metaphor regarding the lack of reference to this location is “The Silence Is Deafening.” Only one nation on earth has the technology to remotely block a planes radar and communications if they felt their base was under threat from a terrorist attack. I believe in the coming days or weeks it will be the USA who find evidence that the plane crashed ??? but in fact I believe it was probably shot down.

OK, let's assume, it really is a part of the missing 777. Now what? We know it must have crashed - but we knew this early March 2014.We can safely assume it crashed in the Indian Ocean, probably west of Australia - sounds familiar from early March 2014.The only "good" I see in it is that it gives the real search mission an emotional lift in that something tangible has been found.

Andy wrote:

The flaperon washed ashore in France (Reunion is a French Protectorate) so it will be investigated by the French Authorities.

And more news this morning about more debris being found, possibly part of a door [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If a door has been recovered then that should provide a lot of useful information about the impact. I'm assuming that it would be apparent if there had been any fire or explosives residue, whether it had been sheared off or even potentially opened.... the beach comber is reported to have said he didn't read papers or listen to the radio. As for telling everyone along the shore to be on the look out, they are thousands of miles away from an incident that was unconnected with their daily lives. Ask any man in the street what aircraft have crashed in the sea or been shot down recently. I would guess you would get more blank looks. Ask the same question in KL and more would know.

Can anyone explain how ocean currents carry bits of aircraft? I watched pieces of flotsam near the cost , bobbing up and down as the waves crash to shore and moving nary an inch. I've watched pieces of flotsam skudding to shore on a windy day when the swell was imperceptible. The giant detritus island in the Pacific doesn't seem to follow any particular current but does move with the prevailing wind. Just wondering.

It is much easier to move debris further out into the ocean than near the shore. Shore waves go back and forth whereas ocean currents move in great rivers which circle the entire ocean basin. Debris gets moved along, picked up, tumbled into another layer and so forth, slowly over hundreds of miles. Check out the big island of debris from the Pacific "vortex", filled with plastic cups from cruise ships and now radioactive material from Fukushima. It helps to try to visualize the ocean in 3D with currents being moved by temperature differences and pressures. Look at a cloud of smoke and see all the swirls moving in various directions... the smoke particles are like the debris from a wreck.

Debris tracking flight MH370 based on ocean currents



Northern part of the search area looks much more probable if this is anything to go by

Thanks [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I think I get it now but its not a science its more a best guess?

Your welcome mate

It appears as though the barnacles attached to the flaperon may (as hoped for) be able to provide some refinement of the likely ocean-entry site.

If the creatures are identified as a particular sub-species (Lepas australis), this would suggest the Southern side of things, as this species does not inhabit warmer, more Northerly, waters but is confined to cooler conditions (i.e. Southerly latitudes).

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Of course, there will be counter-arguments....

Plane 'window' washes up on Reunion Island

Picture of plastic molding that some speculate might be a window. Looks a bit small to me.  

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Looks like the side of a sewing machine

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Malaysian PM Najib confirms plane debris ( Flaperon ) discovered on Reunion island belongs to flight MH370.


I think most of us already knew this

The Malaysian stone wall is under some serious attack

"Now that the French have invited the Malaysians to participate in the examination of the wing, the French judge expects information from Malaysia about its criminal investigation into the flight’s disappearance, the prosecutor’s spokeswoman said. “There has to be some reciprocity.” It wasn’t clear how the judge would respond if Malaysia doesn’t comply. A senior official at Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport said the country hasn’t been concealing any information from its criminal investigation into the disappearance. “We have nothing to hide,” he said, declining to comment further." France Broadens Its MH370 Probe Through Wreckage Analysis. The Australians had to agree to hush up in order to get information from the Malaysians. The French have no such hindrance.

The weekly operational update from ATSB includes some discussion of the flaperon:

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Distribute a million small floating fragments over a million square miles, why should two turn up on the same tiny island?

Why this piece and no others, well that could be due to its location on the aircraft and the rather large object directly in front of it, one can easily imagine a sequence of events that would see it detaching as the aircraft landed on the water, whilst other parts would stay attached, if anything else was to wash up somewhere it would likely be the other flaperon, but that would be pure chance.

MH370: Malaysia publishes new theory

Malaysia's government newsagency has published a new theory suggesting Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 glided downwards and landed with soft impact on the southern Indian Ocean.

The report raises the possibility that one or more of the 239 people on board were still alive when the Boeing 777 ditched into the ocean after flying for more than seven hours off course......................


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