Search for missing flight MH370 instead turns up a 19th-century shipwreck

Australian researchers still haven't had any luck finding missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but in the meantime they've found the remains of a 19th-century shipwreck. The ancient ship's remains first popped up on researchers' radar back in December as they continued to scour the Indian Ocean's floor for any evidence of the flight that mysteriously disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 passengers on board. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau deployed an unmanned submarine to check out the ocean floor anomaly on Jan. 2, and it returned with high-resolution sonar pictures not of a wrecked plane, but a wrecked ship.

This marks the second 19th-century shipwreck that researchers have found in their fruitless search for the missing plane. So far — despite the 80,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean floor already searched in a combined effort by China, Malaysia, and Australia — all that's been found from the missing Boeing 777 is a wing segment that washed up on the island of La Réunion in July 2015.

The search will continue for another six months, but right now it's looking more likely that researchers will find another 19th-century shipwreck than Flight 370's wreckage.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up