Searchers dismiss possibility wreckage found in Bay of Bengal is from MH370
Australian geophysical survey company that may have discovered MH370 debris in March thousands of miles from current search zone questions why claim was dismissed
The Australian agency heading up the search for the missing Malaysian jet has dismissed a claim by a resource survey company that it found possible plane wreckage in the northern Bay of Bengal.
The location cited by Australia-based GeoResonance is thousands of kilometres north of a remote area in the Indian Ocean where the search for Flight MH370 has been concentrated for weeks.
“The Australian-led search is relying on information from satellite and other data to determine the missing aircraft’s location. The location specified by the GeoResonance report is not within the search arc derived from this data,” the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC), which is heading up the search off Australia’s west coast, said in a statement on Tuesday. “The joint international team is satisfied that the final resting place of the missing aircraft is in the southerly portion of the search arc.”
“The company and its directors are surprised by the lack of response from the various authorities.”
GeoResonance stressed that it is not certain it found the Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but called for its findings to be investigated.
“The company is not declaring this is MH370, however it should be investigated,” GeoResonance said in the statement.
The company uses imaging, radiation chemistry and other technologies to search for oil, gas or mineral deposits. In hunting for Flight MH370, it used the same technology to look on the ocean floor for chemical elements that would be present in a Boeing 777: aluminium, titanium, jet fuel residue and others.
GeoResonance compared multispectral images taken March 5 and March 10 – before and after the plane’s disappearance – and found a specific area where the data varied between those dates, it said in a statement. The location is about 190 kilometres south of Bangladesh.