Wing flap analysis suggests plane plunged into the ocean in ‘death dive’
NEW wreckage from doomed flight MH370 supports theories the plane was crashed into the ocean on purpose.
Analysis of a wing flap, which washed ashore in Tanzania, suggests the plane plunged into the sea in a ‘death dive’.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau staff examine the wing flap found off the coast of TanzaniaCredit: AP:Associated Press
Experts have said the wing flap was not deployed at the time of impact, ruling out a controlled crash landing, 7 News has reported.
It is more than two years since the Malaysia Airlines flight vanished with 239 people aboard.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has said the flap is still being tested.
But, the head of the organisation’s search for MH370 Peter Foley told Australian Associated Press (AAP) that analysis of the flap suggested it had not been deployed when the plane hit the water.
A pilot attempting a soft landing would have been expected to extend the wing flaps.
Mr Foley told AAP that analysis of satellite data – the accuracy of which has been questioned – shows it falling at a rapid and increasing rate.
He said: “The rate of descent combined with the position of the flap — if it’s found that it is not deployed — will almost certainly rule out either a controlled ditch or glide.”
In July it was announced that the search for the missing plane would be suspended if it was not found in the current search area.
Earlier this year it was revealed that the pilot who flew MH370 had practised crashing a plane into the Indian Ocean on a simulator just weeks before it disappeared.
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah used an elaborate home-built flight simulator to steer himself over the Strait of Malacca and into the remote southern Indian ocean.
The route he took was chillingly similar to the one the missing plane took the day it vanished from the sky in March 2014.
At the time Zaharie, an opposition supporter, came under scrutiny amid unsubstantiated reports that he was upset over a jail sentence handed to Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim hours before the plane took off or was suicidal due to personal problems.
His family have always rejected the claims.
It has been suggested Zaharie was heartbroken over an alleged breakdown in a relationship with a married woman.
It is believed he and his wife had separated, although were still living in the same house.
Since the crash there have been several theories muted about what caused it to go down including whether one, both or no pilots were in control, whether it was hijacked – or whether all aboard perished and the plane was not controlled at all when it hit the water.
