Flight MH370 disappeared without a trace in March 2014 with 239
passengers and crew on board and search efforts have focused on a
broad expanse of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia.
A piece of aircraft debris that washed up on the French island of
Reunion last week roughly 3,700 km (2,300 miles) from the expected
crash zone was consistent with where the plane went down, based on
analysis of ocean currents, winds and waves, Australian officials
and independent oceanographers said last week.
But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the
search, said initial debris drift modeling undertaken in June 2014
had mistakenly indicated that the first possible landfall of debris
would be on the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, in the first weeks
of July 2014.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Aug/05/images/ads/current/LINCOLN_theater_011411.png) Models run by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization in November last year and updated last month
found, however, that an Indonesia landfall was highly unlikely.
The mistake did not affect the extensive international surface
search for the missing plane off the west coast of Australia, ATSB
said. That search was called off in April, more than a month after
the plane went down.
"While this error in that model had no impact on the way the surface
search was conducted, it was important in order to understand over
the course of time where debris might wash up and help verify or
discount the various items found on beaches, particularly on the
west coast of Australia," the ATSB said in a statement on Wednesday.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Aug/05/images/ads/current/fcs_funeral_lda082613.png)
Australia has sent an expert to Toulouse, France, to examine the
debris - a wing surface known as a flaperon - on Wednesday, Deputy
Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a statement.
"Work is being undertaken by the Malaysian and French authorities to
establish whether the flaperon originated from MH370," Truss said.
"Malaysian and French officials may be in a position to make a
formal statement about the origin of the flaperon later this week."
(Reporting by Swati Pandey and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Edmund
Klamann)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Aug/05/images/ads/current/christian_village_lda_022015.png) |