Discovery of shipwreck by MH370 search crew hailed as positive sign

The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has uncovered a previously uncharted shipwreck, leading officials to say that if the plane is in their search zone they will find it. The Australian-led team is scouring the southern Indian Ocean seabed in hope of finding the final resting place of MH370, which vanished on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

this event has really demonstrated that the systems, people and the equipment involved in the search are working well. It’s shown that if there’s a debris field in the search area, we’ll find it.

Peter Foley, director of the operational search for MH370

Data from a high-resolution sonar scan using an autonomous underwater vehicle revealed spots worth probing, mostly about the size of a cricket ball but some larger, at 3,900 metres (12,795 feet) down. The search for the aircraft has been a complex undertaking, with Australia originally focusing on a 60,000 square kilometres (23,166 square miles) zone. But with more than 75% searched without success so far, the hunt has now been expanded into a 120,000 square kilometre area.

Science