Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 likely “spiraled” into the remote southern Indian Ocean in March after it ran out of fuel, according to a new report. It also says that the search area in the Indian Ocean--the remote “7th arc”--might not be where the plane disappeared.
The report was drafted up via simulators from the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau.
“The simulator activities involved fuel exhaustion of the right engine followed by flameout of the left engine with no control inputs. his scenario resulted in the aircraft entering a descending spiralling low bank angle left turn and the aircraft entering the water in a relatively short distance after the last engine flameout,” the report says.
It adds that the aircraft could be “located within relatively close proximity” to the “7th arc,” where investigators are currently searching.
The plane, which had 239 on board when it disappeared March 8, was heading from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Officials believe it was turned around before crashing hundreds of miles west of Perth, Australia.
The report said that the search area could be changed again.
“A combination of a better understanding of the ground initiated telephone call messages and a refined SATCOM system model both indicate that an area further south on the 7th arc search should be prioritized,” reads a summary of the agency’s report. “Although of reasonably high confidence, and relatively large, this area does not contain all the possible derived paths.”
