It is now nine years since the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the nearly 240 humans aboard the plane.
Investigations that took two years trying to trace the flying machine, ended with the final clue, leading experts to the Tanzanian Coast, where pieces of the said plane were reportedly found.
Time Magazine reported that a large piece of debris found off the coast of Tanzania was confirmed by Australian investigators as being part of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, fuselage.
What seemed like a plane wing flap was discovered on the Pemba Island’s shoreline in July 2016, over two years and four months after the plane disappeared.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), then assisting Malaysian authorities with identifying debris, explained that the discovered piece was a section of an outboard flap from the right wing of the lost Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 passenger jet.
Two other pieces that could have also floated south along the Tanzanian Coastline were uncovered upon reaching the coast of Mozambique and established to be from MH 370.
Another section of a wing called a ‘flaperon,’ was previously found on Réunion Island in 2015.
The Guardian of UK later reported that oceanographers were analyzing the wing flaps from Tanzania and Réunion in the hope of identifying a possible new search area through drift modeling.
According to The Guardian a new search would however require a new funding commitment.
Malaysia, Australia and China later agreed that the hunt would be suspended once the then current stretch of ocean was exhausted, unless new evidence emerged to pinpoint a specific location of the aircraft.
Last Resort
That means Tanzania Coastline is the final site where the world finally got into contact with the missing plane.
Experts say the pieces from the fuselage could have simply been washed to the Tanzanian Coastline.
But what about the passengers? This is one nine-year old question still lacking an answer.
Samantha Payne writing for the International Business Times (IBT) of UK, in September 2016 made this report:
Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plunged into the ocean in a ‘death dive’, according to new evidence. Further analysis of the Boeing 777 wing flap, washed ashore in Tanzania, revealed it was not deployed at point of impact, eliminating suggestions the aircraft with 239 passengers on board could have made a controlled landing.
IBT
The head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Peter Foley, stated this to the Australian Associated Press (AAP):
“The rate of descent combined with the position of the flap — if it’s found that it is not deployed (which since has) — will almost certainly rule out either a controlled ditch or glide. If it’s not in a deployed state, it validates, if you like, where we’ve been looking. It confirms previous analysis of the automated flight signals that the doomed aircraft could have dropped from a height of 35,000ft at a speed of up to 20,000ft a minute before crashing into the sea.
AAP
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 an international passenger flight went missing while on air March 8, 2014.
It was travelling from Kuala Lumpur International Airport heading to Beijing Capital International Airport.
Reports say the crew of the Boeing 777-200ER with registration 9M-MRO, wired their final communications with air traffic control around 38 minutes after the plane took off from Malaysia.
At that time the flight was already cruising over the South China Sea.
Final Voyage
A few minutes later and without notice the plane was lost from Air Traffic Control radar screens.
However, it was still being tracked by military radar for another sixty minutes or so.
The aircraft was then deviating westward from its planned flight path.
By this time, it was crossing the Malay Peninsula and Andaman Sea.
After covering 200 nautical miles or 370 kilometers, the plane left the radar range northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia.
Essentially it disappeared without trace with all 227 passengers and 12 crew members.
As of now they are all being presumed dead.
The disappearance of Flight 370 is also said to be one of the deadliest incidents involving a Boeing 777 aircraft.
It was also one of the two worst moments in Malaysia Airlines’ history, the other one being the shooting down of the other Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
The plane was fired at while flying over conflict-stricken eastern Ukraine four on 17 July 2014. That was four months after flight 370 disappeared.
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