Malaysia's new theory: MH370 'intact on ocean floor'

A piece of aeroplane possibly thought to be from flight MH370 found washed up on the shore of the island of Saint-Andre in La Reunion. Photo / LINFO.RE

A new theory has emerged about what might have happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in its crash landing, published by Malaysia's government news agency Bernama.

Satellite expert Zaaim Redha Abdul Rahman, who helped British satellite firm Inmarsat analyse data shortly after the plane went missing in March last year, said the jet probably made a soft landing on the water, floated for a while on the surface, and then sank mostly in one piece.

Rahman's view tallies with what other experts have said about the likely fate of the plane after new evidence came to light last month with the discovery of the flaperon.

The piece of debris that was almost certainly part of MH370 suggests that the aircraft may have glided along after running out of fuel and descended slowly into the water. The Boeing 777 flaperon washed up on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

On the day the flaperon was found, Australian aviation expert Neil Hansford told AFP: "What it does show is that the aircraft has gone into the water in a controlled-type crash and as the engines have hit the water, they've sheared off and this part is straight behind one of the engines."

Former US National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith told Bloomberg that since the piece was not "crushed," experts could "deduce it was either a low-energy crash or a low-energy intentional ditching."

Rahman came to the same conclusion.

"It (the flaperon) was only slightly damaged and was just encrusted with barnacles. Its appearance indicates that it was not violently torn off from the aircraft's main body ... it does seem that it got detached pretty nicely at its edges," Rahman told Bernama.

"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 added.

"Furthermore, the flaperon that was recovered (from Reunion Island) wouldn't have been in one piece ... we would have only seen bits and pieces of it." t's possible that the flaperon broke off from the submerged plane body, Rahman explained.

"Similarly, other parts would also become detached and float with the help of the strong water current, before being washed up on the shores of islands like Reunion," he said.