A report by aviation expert, Geoffrey Thomas in Airline Ratings says that according to one of the world’s leading oceanographers, MH370 did not crash in the Maldives, pouring cold water on a recent theory.
Charitha Pattiaratchi, Winthrop Professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia told AirlineRatings.com that MH370 could not have crashed in the Maldives because the “debris would have ended up in Somalia” and other northeast African states six months before the first piece was recovered at Reunion Island.
With MH370, a Malaysia Airlines 777 which disappeared on March 8, 2014, on a flight from KL to Beijing, Professor Pattiaratchi said, “Later, the current would have circled back and deposited debris on India and Sri Lanka shores”.
He added that based on hard evidence, not theory, MH370 must be due west of Perth Western Australia between the latitudes 28 and 33 south, adding, “It is most likely at Broken Ridge (32 degrees south) on the seventh arc,” with that location about 2000km due west of Perth, Western Australia and the “seventh arc”, a satellite-related curved line that marks the last contact with MH370, with the topography very mountainous and the depth is between 4000 and 6000m. CLICK HERE for a video representation of the underwater terrain at Broken Ridge.
Professor Pattiaratchi says the next search should go wider from the seventh arc than the 50 miles on either side previously completed.
Last month an Adelaide-based aerospace engineer produced a 68-page analysis suggesting that MH370 crashed near the Maldives, with the Maldives crash theory not new and originally based on sightings of a low- flying Boeing 777, however, debris hunter Blaine Gibson said that MH370 crash expert Don Thompson had solved the mystery of the low flying 777 on the morning of March 8, 2014, saying, “Don’s research has turned up that a Saudia 777, registered HZ-AKF, landed at Male at 8.37 am on March 8, 2014.” “Ït was apparently a private flight and there was some low flying before it landed”, adding, “I have interviewed the people who sighted the 777 and they all said that it was blue and white, which are the colours of the Saudi plane”
In the meantime , the Malaysian government has been offered a second search by US-based Ocean Infinity on a no find no fee basis but has so far declined, with in January 2018 Ocean Infinity conducted an unsuccessful survey under contract from the Malaysian Government on the same basis.
An edited report from Airline Ratings by John Alwyn-Jones
