Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: New Search Area As Unanswered Questions Continue To Fly

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has again shifted in another direction reports the USA Today. An area being called “the 7th arc” will be the new focal point for the inexplicably missing Flight MH370, using the most recent re-interpretations of the jetliner’s satellite communications.

This latest announcement by Australian officials regarding the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 comes after thoroughly combing the previous search area and finding no signs of the Malaysian Airlines jet.

There had been high hopes in April, when “pings” were detected in the South Indian Ocean that were thought to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. But according to the Joint Australian Coordination Center, the Bluefin-21 submersible used in the search found nothing, and “in its professional judgment, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370.”

With the new area established, there seems also to be a new sense of optimism and confidence by officials of ultimately finding Flight MH370:

“The latest information and analysis confirms that MH370 will be found in close proximity to the arc,” the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said in a statement. “At the time MH370 reached this arc, the aircraft is considered to have exhausted its fuel and to have been descending.”

The ATSB went further, saying that additional analysis of the satellite data reflecting Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370’s flight path, “confirms that MH370 will be found in close proximity” to a specific corridor on the 7th arc. They believe MH370 likely crashed within 60 miles of the sweeping location. While it is a lot of ocean, the ATSB reportedly plans to whittle it down to a “prioritized” 17,500-square-mile area to search.

Where the new area is in relation to the previous one that was ruled out as MH370’s crash site, hasn’t been made entirely clear.

So while the surreal hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 continues, the door is still wide open to speculation and theories of what could have possibly happened to the Malaysia Airlines Flight and all her passengers.

Potential pieces to the puzzle such as the recent revelation by a female sailor that she saw a plane on fire with other planes above it, or the cell phone picture purportedly sent by Philip Wood, one of MH370’s passengers, back in April after MH370 had vanished, are generally cast aside for being in the conspiracy theory realm.

But the unanswered questions regarding Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 aren’t just being asked by conspiracy folks, they also continue to be asked by world leaders and other public officials.

One such person is Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airlines.

While attending the recent International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Doha Qatar, Mr. Clark said that the missing MH370 should have been intercepted by fighter jets if it flew off course, and why wasn’t it circled once the Malaysian military picked it up on primary radar?

“If you were to fly from London to Oslo and then over the North Sea you turned off and then went west to Ireland, within two minutes you’d have Tornadoes, Eurofighters everything up around you,” said Clark. “If you did that over Australia and the US, there would be something up. I’m not quite sure where primary radar was in all of this.”

For the sake of the families of the lost MH370, hopefully the continued questions will be answered and the new area of interest will reveal what really happened to the lost Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Images via the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and Wikipedia