New York Pilot Claims To Have Found Images Of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
Michael Hoebel, 60, said he
had found an image of what appeared to be the plane in one piece in the
Gulf of Thailand — the exact place where the missing Malaysia Airlines
plane made its last communication with air traffic control before
falling silent in the early hours of March 8.
The Boeing 777 vanished from radar an hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Why that happened is still a mystery.
Using the online satellite imagery website TomNod, Hoebel said he was shocked to find the plane resting in what appeared to be an unbroken state.
“I was taken aback because I couldn’t believe I would find this,” he told a local TV news channel.
Despite Mr Hoebel’s claims, the search for the missing plane will continue under the waters of the Indian Ocean.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott
said it is now unlikely that any aircraft debris will be found on the
ocean surface, so the hunt for the plane will now be entering a new
phase.
He described the search as “probably the most difficult search in human history”.
Standing alongside search
co-ordinator retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the prime minister
said the new phase would focus “under the sea”.
Mr Abbott admitted it was
“possible” nothing may ever be found, but said that would be a “terrible
outcome” for the families of those on board who would live under a
“crippling cloud of uncertainty”.
Mr Abbott and Air Chief
Marshal Houston said using the new side scanner sonar equipment to
search the underwater area would take about eight months — and that was
without any potential weather or equipment issues.
It was highly unlikely any
aircraft debris would now be found on the ocean surface as most material
would have become waterlogged and sunk, the PM said.
Authorities, he said, were baffled and disappointed that they could not find any wreckage.
“We have now searched close to 400 square kilometres under the sea.” he said.
The expanded search for the
missing Malaysia Airlines plane continues as the world awaits the
release of a preliminary report into the disaster.
The report has already been
sent to the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation and will be
released to the public this week.
It’s understood to contain a
safety recommendation for real-time tracking of commercial aircraft,
which is the same advice given after the 2009 Air France crash.
The air search for MH370 wreckage was set to resume Monday after it was suspended due to bad weather over the weekend.
Sea swells were expected to reach four to five metres, with a cold front predicted to leave the search area.
- News.com.au
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