Search Director Says Evidence Indicates That The Airplane Was Not Being Controlled When It Impacted The Water

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau official who directed the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 says that the airliner was not under anyone's control when it impacted the Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014.

The Voice of America reports that search Director Peter Foley told an Australian Senate Committee that the evidence does not support the findings in "MH370: Mystery Solved", a new book by Canadian air crash investigator Larry Vance.

Foley told the committee that he has read the book, but still believes that the airplane was not being controlled when it impacted the water. He said that satellite transmission show that during the flight's final moments, it was in a fast descent and accelerating when the impact occurred. "If it was being controlled at the end, it wasn't very successfully being controlled," he said. "The flaps weren't deployed."

The author of the book says that the damage to a flap that was found washed up on an island near Tanzania in 2016 did not show the kind of damage that would have been caused by a high-speed impact. The other flaperon is being held by French authorities as evidence in possible criminal proceedings. The French authorities have not allowed any "meaningful" analysis, according to Foley.

Foley said that while it is not known who initially flew the airplane off course, it was "absolutely evident" that someone had. He said it was most likely that the plane was somehow depressurized in flight, and that everyone on board was likely already deceased when it went down.

Meanwhile, Ocean Infinity, a Texas-based technology company, renewed the search for the Boeing 777 this year after the government of Malaysia offered up to $70 million if the main wreckage or the plane's "black boxes" could be located.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report