The head of the failed search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is calling for a fresh inquiry based on new evidence that may finally solve the mystery of the aircraft’s disappearance exactly seven years ago today.
Peter Foley oversaw the Australian government’s high-resolution sonar search of 50,000 square miles of Indian Ocean floor but failed to find any sign of the jet, which vanished with 239 people on board shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur airport on 8 March 2014.
However, Foley has now told The Times that new research by oceanographers and flight experts suggests the wreckage may lie in another, as-yet unexplored region of the ocean.
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The Sun reports that the new evidence is based on “analysis of a piece of Boeing 777 debris that washed up on a beach in South Africa last August”. A newly released report by an independent group of experts says that the wing spoiler is believed to be from MH370 and that the damage indicates it was torn off the aircraft in an uncontrolled high-speed dive.
The finding “counters alternate theories of a ditching by a rogue pilot”. And “ocean drift analysis and a review of a revised flight path” suggest that the plane probably “went down about 1,200 miles west of Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia, in an area notorious for its deep ocean floor canyons and underwater mountains”, The Times adds.
Foley told the paper that “a new inquiry should inspect the sea floor 70 nautical miles either side of the target area”.
The Malaysian government has previously said that it would need compelling new evidence before mounting another search.
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