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Are these MH370 parts coming clean, or unstuck?

Ben Sandilands | Mar 19, 2016 10:58AM |


The slightly contaminated Liam Lotter find from Mozambique

Are claimed Mozambique MH370 fragments too clean to be true?


Ben Sandilands | Mar 18, 2016 7:39AM |



The Dropbox album of Blaine Gibson’s find on a Mozambique sandbar

A debris of inconvenience -

Latest update ATSB MH370 SIO search:

Operational Update

At the request of the Malaysian Government, Australia has accepted responsibility for the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is leading the underwater search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.
Joint Agency Coordination Centre MH370 Operational Search Update

23 March 2016

This operational report has been developed to provide regular updates on the progress of the search effort for MH370.  Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow.  Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible.

Key developments this week

• Fugro Discovery continues to conduct underwater search operations.
  

• Fugro Equator departed the search area on 17 March, and is en route to Fremantle for a scheduled resupply visit.
  

• Havila Harmony departed the search area on 20 March, and is en route to BAE Henderson.
  

• Dong Hai Jiu 101 is en route to Fremantle after an incident on the evening of 21 March in which the failure of a tow cable connector resulted in the loss of the SLH-ProSAS-60 towfish. Recovery options are currently being assessed.
  

• Two pieces of debris found in Mozambique and suspected to be from an aircraft arrived in Australia for examination.
  

• A further piece of possible aircraft debris, suspected to be the cowling from an engine, has been found in South Africa. The Malaysian Government is working with South African officials to arrange for examination of the debris.
  
  

Analysis of debris from Mozambique

Two pieces of debris found in Mozambique arrived in Canberra, Australia, on 20 March for examination. The examination team includes investigators from Australia and Malaysia, along with specialists from Boeing, Geoscience Australia, and the Australian National University. Procedures appropriate to maintain the integrity of this potential evidence have been followed.

The items have been treated at Geoscience Australia’s quarantine-approved facilities. The pieces were visually examined to remove all visible macrofauna and then rinsed, submerged and agitated in water to capture any loose fauna. All water was then passed through a series of sieves with any possible macrofauna retained. The sieved material will then be sorted and possible biological material identified. The items were released from quarantine once they were thoroughly cleaned and all visible signs of possible contamination removed.


Specialists from the Research School of Physics and Engineering at the Australian National University are assisting with the examination. The items have been x-rayed using an advanced scanning facility developed by the university.


Other technical specialists are conducting an examination which will include seeking to identify specific features that may be consistent with the items coming from an aircraft, and if possible, from MH370.

P2 comment - Good to see the suspected MH370 debris parts are being treated properly and that the authorities are intending to be fully transparent about what they discover - about bloody time if you ask me...  

A statement on the findings will be made once the examination process is complete.

Underwater search operations

Weather may continue to impact on search operations but generally, more favourable conditions are being experienced.

More than 95,000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been searched so far.
In the event the aircraft is found and accessible, Australia, Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to plans for recovery activities, including securing all the evidence necessary for the accident investigation.

Consistent with the undertaking given by the Governments of Australia, Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China in April last year, 120,000 square kilometres will be thoroughly searched. It is anticipated this will be completed around the middle of the year. In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, Governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area.

[i][i][i]Click map to enlarge[/i][/i][/i][i][i][i] [/i][/i][/i]
Weather
Favourable weather conditions are forecast for the search area in the coming days.
 
 

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Previous versions:

• MH370 Operational Search Updates
  

Related: MH370
 

Another day and another potential piece of MH370 debris, from Ben Sandilands today:

Few doubts about latest MH370 fragment found in South Africa


Ben Sandilands | Mar 23, 2016 7:38AM |


Social media image of the internal structure of the part found on a South African beach
Almost out of frame given the terrible news about the Brussels attacks a fragment of a Rolls-Royce 777 engine cowling identical to those that were on missing flight MH370 has been found on a South African beach.

Malaysian authorities are immediately sending a team to South Africa to examine and repatriate the object which shows part of a Rolls-Royce logo on its external surface and a honeycomb structure within which bears obvious similarities to the two objects from Mozambique which are now under examination in Australia by the ATSB.

If these three objects are from MH370, and the South African find makes that seem highly likely, the weathered state of the composite material in them shows a common degree of resilience when it comes to hosting marine life compared to the heavily encrusted alloy surface of an MH370 flaperon found on the French island of La Réunion last July.

The flaperon was identified as coming from the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER , which vanished on 8 March 2014 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Duncan Steel, a member of the Independent Group of scientists who have been auditing and analysing the released information about MH370 and the conduct and assumptions of the Australian led sea floor search for wreckage, says the lack of large barnacles on these items would have allowed them to drift further from the point of impact in the south Indian Ocean than the flaperon.

The image below shows what appears to be an access panel from the right hand side of the 777’s wing on a Mozambique shore last December for comparison with the latest find shown at the top of the post.

The slightly contaminated Liam Lotter find from Mozambique

Blue Whale in the SIO??

It is strange but no one seems to be prepared to talk about the Blue Whale in the SIO, i.e. the more potential parts that keep on washing up on the SE Coast of Africa the less likely it is that the ATSB SIO search priority area is the highest probability final resting place of MH370..


MTF...P2