China "Mystery solved": Researcher claims to have located MH370
More than ten years ago, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people on board disappeared from radar screens without a trace on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Since then, researchers and aviation experts have been trying to solve one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. An Australian scientist now claims to have clarified the whereabouts of the plane.
29.08.2024, 09:42
SDA
Vincent Lyne from the University of Tasmania claims in his study to have pinpointed the exact location of the wreckage - in a hole 6,000 meters deep. "A perfect hiding place," Lyne wrote a few days ago in a post on LinkedIn.
"Deliberate landing maneuver"
The hole is located at the end of Broken Ridge, an oceanic plateau in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, in a "very rugged and dangerous marine environment". This explains why the wreck has not yet been found, Lyne emphasized. The 2021 study has now been accepted and published by the renowned "Journal of Navigation" following a peer-review process.
But why did the plane crash? The scientist is convinced that it was not a lack of fuel - as often suspected - that was responsible, but a deliberate landing maneuver in the water by the captain, Zaharie Shah. As evidence, he cites damage to the wings and the flap system as well as to the wing flap found off the island of La Réunion off the east coast of Africa.
These were similar to the damage after the controlled ditching of Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger on the Hudson River in New York in 2009, Lyne wrote. All 155 people on board survived the sensational emergency landing.
Emergency landing or intentional?
His findings supported the theory of Canadian aviation expert and former air accident investigator Larry Vance, who had also spoken of conspicuous damage to a piece of wreckage discovered and assumed a controlled landing on the water. Whether the pilot decided to take this step because of an emergency or deliberately steered the plane into the sea and wanted it to disappear has not yet been clarified by the latest research results.
For his study, Lyne combined the longitude of the runway at Malaysia's Penang Airport with a flight path discovered on the pilot's home simulator - which FBI investigators had previously dismissed as "irrelevant". According to Lyne, the 6,000-meter-deep hole is located at the intersection of the two lines. MH370 had disappeared from radar near Penang at the time.
Lyne called on the authorities to investigate the location he had pinpointed with "the highest priority". After many "confusing theories" and "wild speculation", the desperate relatives could perhaps finally find peace.
