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Soft Landing Theory of MH370 Means Some Could Have Survived

Friday, August 14, 2015
BANGKOK: Malaysia's government newsagency has published a new theory suggesting Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 glided downwards and landed with soft impact on the southern Indian Ocean.

The report raises the possibility that one or more of the 239 people on board were still alive when the Boeing 777 ditched into the ocean after flying for more than seven hours off course.

The Bernama newsagency quotes Malaysian satellite expert Zaaim Redha Abdul Rahman saying he believes the plane "floated for a while" before sinking into the deep sea "in one piece"

Many experts have speculated the plane nosedived into the ocean at high speed after running out of fuel.

But Mr Zaaim Redha, who helped British satellite company Inmarsat analyse data shortly after the plane disappeared almost 17 months ago, said his belief was supported by the condition of a wing part - a flaperon - that washed up on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean on July 29.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced last week that the part was "conclusively" from MH370, a breakthrough in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

"It [the flaperon] was only slightly damaged and was just encrusted with barnacles. Its appearance indicates that it was not violently torn from the aircraft's main body . . . it does seem that it got detached pretty nicely at its edges," Mr Zaaim Redha said.

"If MH370 had crashed with a really hard impact, we would have seen small pieces of debris floating on the sea immediately after that," he said.

"Furthermore the flaperon that was recovered wouldn't have been in one piece . . . we would have seen only bits and pieces of it."

Mr Zaaim Redha, now a consultant at satellite and engineering company Zeta Resources, said it was possible for an aircraft to float on water, citing US Airways flight 1549 that made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in 2009.

"It's possible that the aircraft may have submerged deep inside the ocean for quite some time before the flaperon got detached," he said.

"Similarly, other parts would have become detached and float with the help of the strong water current before being washed upon the shores of islands like Reunion."

Experts have said forensic examination of the wing part in a laboratory in France should indicate how the plane ditched into the ocean.

Bloomberg quotes former US National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith saying that since the part was not "crushed" experts will be able to "deduce it was either a low-energy crash or low-energy intentional ditching".

One of many theories swirling around the disappearance is that somebody on board switched off the oxygen supply to others on board and flew the plane into the vast expanse of the southern Indian Ocean.

The only stories that Bernama usually publishes are sanctioned by the government in Kuala Lumpur.

Comments

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Three days after the German Air flight slammed into the mountains in Europe, low & behold, the German Police found mind altering addictive psychotropic drugs (antidepressants) in the co-pilot's apartment. CCHR ORG You can bet your bottom dollar that a member of the MH370's air-crew was on the the things.
Two of the known side-effects of antidepressants are suicide & mass murder. The only way of preventing this from happening again is to drug test all pilots & co-pilots for anti-depressants every month.
Have a nice day.

Posted by Capt Durkin on August 14, 2015 21:40

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"Two of the known side-effects of antidepressants are suicide & mass murder."

What??

Posted by matt on August 15, 2015 18:56


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