MH370 bombshell as leading scientists identify THREE new ‘highest priority’ areas to search for missing plane
LEADING experts have pinpointed new "high priority" search sites in the hunt for doomed flight MH370 in what is being seen as a major breakthrough.
In their bombshell research they have narrowed down three potential search zones in the southern Indian Ocean to represent different disaster scenarios.
The top level study - called - was carried out by scientists Victor Iannello, Bobby Ulich, Richard Godfrey and Andrew Banks.
The search area given the “highest priority” (A1) assumes there was no pilot input after fuel ran out, .
The second scenario (A2) assumes there was a glide towards the south after the tanks ran dry over the ocean.
And the lowest priority but largest zone (A3) is where they believe the wreckage could be found if there was a controlled glide into the sea.
“All possible MH370 end points of flight routes in any navigation mode and any speed mode have already been searched,” the authors of the paper wrote.
“This means that MH370 has either been missed in a previous search or recovered from a steep descent … and glided out to an end point outside the previously searched area.”
Theorists have long suggested the jet might have glided down on to the surface of the ocean during a controlled suicide bid by pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
The aircraft vanished on March 8, 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board, flying from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Its final resting place has never been found despite a four-year search over a 120,000 square kilometre area which ended in 2018.
In December, it was revealed air traffic controllers lost Malaysian Airlines jet during a crucial 18 minute window sparking fears the aviation mystery will never be solved.
MH370 - WHAT HAPPENED?
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur and was heading to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Passengers included Chinese calligraphers, a couple on their way home to their young sons after a long-delayed honeymoon and a construction worker who hadn't been home in a year.
But at 12.14am on March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines lost contact with MH370 close to Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca.
Before that, Malaysian authorities believe the last words heard from the plane, from either the pilot or co-pilot, was "Good night Malaysian three seven zero".
Satellite "pings" from the aircraft suggest it continued flying for around seven hours when the fuel would have run out.
Experts have calculated the most likely crash site around 1,000 miles west of Perth, Australia.
But a huge search of the seabed failed to find any wreckage - and there are a number of alternative theories as to its fate.
The packed passenger jet dropped off the radar screens of flight monitors in Malaysia just five seconds after it crossed into Vietnamese airspace.
But the controller monitoring its progress in Kuala Lumpur was dealing with other traffic on his screen and didn’t notice it had vanished.
that when he finally did, he assumed that it was now in the hands of his counterparts in Ho Chi Minh.
However, Vietnamese controllers saw the Boeing 777 - which vanished with 239 on board - cross into their airspace and then also disappear.
They then apparently misunderstood rules which meant they were supposed to inform Malaysia immediately if a plane did not show up.
However, it eventually took more than four hours to alert rescuers - which means it is virtually impossible to pinpoint where and when it went down.
Five pieces, thought to be from the Malaysia Airlines plane, later washed up in Madagascar - more than 4,500 miles from Vietnam.
And more than 30 bits of aircraft debris have so far been collected from various places around the world over the past five years.
MH370’s disappearance has also given rise to a slew of conspiracy theories - some far more bizarre than others.