PETALING JAYA: A former official involved in the search for the Malaysia Airlines MH370 aircraft has called for a new search at a different location from the initial target area.
Peter Foley, who led the Australian government’s hunt for the aircraft seven years ago, said he agreed with new research from an independent group that the wreckage might lie 70 nautical miles either side of the target area in the southern Indian Ocean.
Flight MH370 disappeared while on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014, and an international inquiry concluded it was at the bottom of the southern Indian Ocean.
Foley called for a new inquiry based on fresh information which indicates that the plane went down about 1,200 miles west of Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia.
This new evidence also includes a piece of Boeing 777 debris believed to have belonged to MH370 that washed up on a beach in South Africa last August. An independent group of researchers has said the wreckage indicated the plane had gone down in an uncontrolled dive.
So far, 33 pieces of suspected or confirmed debris from MH370 have been found in Mauritius, Madagascar, Tanzania and South Africa.- FMT