Missing MH370 could have crashed north of search area, says oceanographer

The oceanographer who led American adventurer Blaine Gibson to Madagascar where he found a potential debris field from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet said on Thursday that drift modelling suggested that Flight 370 could have crashed slightly north of the current search area.

The comments come after Gibson on Tuesday handed Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur three pieces of debris and personal belongings found on Madagascar beaches in June, which he suspects came from the Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Another six pieces of potential debris found by Gibson are waiting with Madagascar authorities for Malaysia to collect.

Western Australian University oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi said he had told Gibson that Flight 370 debris was likely to concentrate on Madagascar. Pattiaratchi’s earlier advice had led Gibson to Mozambique where he found debris in February that experts later determined came from Flight 370.

“He rang me from the Maldives and said: where should I go? Should I go to Rodrigues, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa?” Pattiaratchi said on Thursday. “I said: ‘Your best bet is the northeast part of Madagascar’, which is where he went.”

Pattiaratchi said the same modelling led his team of oceanographers to suspect that the airliner could have gone down just north of the search area in the southern Indian Ocean.