Muqadas
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
There’s No Doubt: This Debris Is MH370
A piece of Boeing 777 discovered on an Indian Ocean beach can only be the missing flight, but it’s 4,500 miles from where it was predicted to wash up.
A U.S. official tells the Associated Press that part of an airplane found washed up on a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Rnunion is from a Boeing 777. Only one Boeing 777 has ever disappeared over water: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
This is it.
After a fruitless 17-month search this could be the beginning of solving the world’s greatest aviation mystery—the first piece of physical evidence that investigators can examine.
The piece of debris is part of a wing and probably a control surface from that wing. Control surfaces are among the most likely part of airplane wreckage to survive for a long while as flotsam. The most buoyant parts of an airplane are the lightest parts of the wings, like the flaps and ailerons that are hinged to the rear of the wings and are easily separated by impact on water or land (and for the same reason the horizontal and vertical control surfaces of the tail).
The dimensions of the piece washed up on Rnunion, 9 feet by 3 feet, are consistent with the size of several pieces of a 777’s control surfaces, possibly what is called a flaperon on the inner rear section of the wing.
As encouraging as this discovery is, it does raise important caveats.
Why would only one fragment turn up? Airplane wreckage is normally found in clusters.
After a fruitless 17-month search this could be the beginning of solving the world’s greatest aviation mystery.
Why is it so far from where the experts involved in the search had predicted that wreckage would show up? The Australian authorities leading the search for Flight 370 said last fall that they were working on a drift model to accurately plot where wreckage might first show up. Their prediction: the southern coast of Sumatra —4,500 miles away from Rnunion.
Although the Australians said they would release the results of this drift modeling early this year, they never have. Two months ago they told The Daily Beast: “The work, once finalized, will be released.”
If a piece of the 777 has turned up so far away from the predicted landfall does this mean that the Australian search has been in the wrong place all along?
Not necessarily. Ocean currents are very complex—the main part of the Flight 370 could still be where the Australians are searching, 1,000 miles west of the Australian coast on the deep ocean floor.
There is no “conveyor belt” certainty about currents in the Indian Ocean. The main influence on currents is the giant rotating “gyre” one of five in the world’s oceans, but there are many other patterns that could play a part, including winds and weather.
The heaviest part of the airplane and most likely to sink to the floor immediately are the engines, designed to sheer away from the wings on impact. This would be followed by what is called the wing box, where the wings join the fuselage, which also contains the central fuel tank and the main landing gear. Because of its size and mass this part of the airplane creates the optimum target for under sea searching by sonar.
Source
A piece of Boeing 777 discovered on an Indian Ocean beach can only be the missing flight, but it’s 4,500 miles from where it was predicted to wash up.
A U.S. official tells the Associated Press that part of an airplane found washed up on a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Rnunion is from a Boeing 777. Only one Boeing 777 has ever disappeared over water: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
This is it.
After a fruitless 17-month search this could be the beginning of solving the world’s greatest aviation mystery—the first piece of physical evidence that investigators can examine.
The piece of debris is part of a wing and probably a control surface from that wing. Control surfaces are among the most likely part of airplane wreckage to survive for a long while as flotsam. The most buoyant parts of an airplane are the lightest parts of the wings, like the flaps and ailerons that are hinged to the rear of the wings and are easily separated by impact on water or land (and for the same reason the horizontal and vertical control surfaces of the tail).
The dimensions of the piece washed up on Rnunion, 9 feet by 3 feet, are consistent with the size of several pieces of a 777’s control surfaces, possibly what is called a flaperon on the inner rear section of the wing.
As encouraging as this discovery is, it does raise important caveats.
Why would only one fragment turn up? Airplane wreckage is normally found in clusters.
After a fruitless 17-month search this could be the beginning of solving the world’s greatest aviation mystery.
Why is it so far from where the experts involved in the search had predicted that wreckage would show up? The Australian authorities leading the search for Flight 370 said last fall that they were working on a drift model to accurately plot where wreckage might first show up. Their prediction: the southern coast of Sumatra —4,500 miles away from Rnunion.
Although the Australians said they would release the results of this drift modeling early this year, they never have. Two months ago they told The Daily Beast: “The work, once finalized, will be released.”
If a piece of the 777 has turned up so far away from the predicted landfall does this mean that the Australian search has been in the wrong place all along?
Not necessarily. Ocean currents are very complex—the main part of the Flight 370 could still be where the Australians are searching, 1,000 miles west of the Australian coast on the deep ocean floor.
There is no “conveyor belt” certainty about currents in the Indian Ocean. The main influence on currents is the giant rotating “gyre” one of five in the world’s oceans, but there are many other patterns that could play a part, including winds and weather.
The heaviest part of the airplane and most likely to sink to the floor immediately are the engines, designed to sheer away from the wings on impact. This would be followed by what is called the wing box, where the wings join the fuselage, which also contains the central fuel tank and the main landing gear. Because of its size and mass this part of the airplane creates the optimum target for under sea searching by sonar.
Source
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