MH370 debris came from disparate parts of the plane

A New Malaysian report on debris from the crash of MH370 shows the pieces are from disparate parts of the plane, adding further weight to suggestions it broke up into small pieces as the result of a rapid descent and a high-energy crash.

The examination of 27 pieces of debris found that 19  were either confirmed, almost certainly or highly likely to be from the missing Boeing 777, Another was deemed likely to have come from the plane and seven pieces were unidentifiable.

It included parts from the rear and the interior of the plane, which disappeared in 2014, as well as from the nose and the wings.

The confirmed pieces were a right flaperon found on La Reunion Island, a left outboard aft flap section found on Mauritius and right outboard flap found on an island off Tanzania.

Parts deemed to be almost certainly from MH370 included parts of a right wing flap support faring, a right horizontal stabiliser panel and right vertical stabiliser panel, all found in Mozambique; an engine nose cowl found in Mossel Bay, South Africa; a fragment of an interior stowage closet door found in Mauritius; and a a fragment of cabin interior panel found in Madagascar.

Debris in the “highly likely category” included part of the forward nose landing gear and a seat back trim panel for an inflight entertainment monitor, both found in Madagascar; a right aileron found in South Africa; and parts of both the right and left wing trailing edge panels.

See the Malaysian team's summary of its findings.

The Malaysians matched some of the parts to a former Malaysian Airlines B777-200ER undergoing maintenance to determine their origin and also used the findings of drift modelling conducted by Australia’s CSIRO.

The illustrated Malaysian report was published without drawing any conclusions as to the fate of the aircraft at the end of its flight and did not rule out scenarios such as parts breaking off while the plane was still airborne as it sank after the crash.

However, it adds further support to the hypothesis by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau that the aircraft was in an uncontrolled rapid dive at the end of the flight rather than a controlled ditching aimed at keeping it intact.

The Malaysian Government has yet to comment on drift modelling by the CSIRO using a real Boeing 777 flaperon which confirmed the most likely position of the wreckage is around 35S and near the seventh arc defined by communication between the plane and a geostationary satellite.

There are now three drift studies which put the wreckage within or in the general vicinity of a 25,000 sq. km search area defined last year by international experts.

A call by the experts for the area to be searched was ignored by the Australian, Chinese and Malaysian governments, who decided to suspend the operation in January after a sweep of the original 120,000 sq. km search area failed to find the debris.

The recent CSIRO study has put further pressure on the Malaysians, who have responsibility for the MH370 investigation, to resume the search.