‘Perfect hiding place’: Australian scientist reveals where MH370 could be

The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished from radar after taking off from Kuala Lumpur in 2014, with this March marking 10 years since the disappearance.

There were 239 people on board, including six Australians.

Now Tasmanian researcher Vincent Lyne believes he’s figured out where the plane is, with a 2021 research paper of his being accepted into the Journal of Navigation.

Sharing the news on LinkedIn, Mr Lyne claimed the plane deliberately crashed.

“This work changes the narrative of MH370’s disappearance from one of no-blame, fuel-starvation at the 7th arc, high-speed dive, to a mastermind pilot almost executing an incredible perfect-disappearance in the Southern Indian Ocean,” he wrote.

“In fact, it would have worked were it not for MH370 ploughing its right wing through a wave, and the discovery of the regular interrogation satellite communications by Inmarsat — a brilliant discovery also announced in the Journal of Navigation.”

Mr Lyne, who works at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, said damage to the plane’s wings, flaps and flaperon suggest it was involved in a “controlled ditching” similar to that of Captain Sully on the Hudson River in 2009.

“This justifies beyond doubt the original claim, based on brilliant, skilled, and very careful debris-damage analyses, by decorated ex-Chief Canadian Air-crash Investigator Larry Vance, that MH370 had fuel and running engines when it underwent a masterful ‘controlled ditching’ and not a high-speed fuel-starved crash,” he wrote.

He added MH370 is “where the longitude of Penang airport (the runway no less) intersects the Pilot-in-Command home simulator track discovered and discarded by the FBI and officials as ‘irrelevant’.”

“That pre-meditated iconic location harbors a very deep 6000m hole at the eastern end of the Broken Ridge within a very rugged and dangerous ocean environment renowned for its wild fisheries and new deep-water species. With narrow steep sides, surrounded by massive ridges and other deep holes, it is filled with fine sediments — a perfect “hiding” place,” he continued, claiming the area needs to be verified as a “high priority”.

“Whether it will be searched or not is up to officials and search companies, but as far as science is concerned, we know why the previous searches failed and likewise science unmistakably points to where MH370 lies. In short, the MH370 mystery has been comprehensively solved in science!” he added.

The researcher’s claims come months after a US-based deep sea exploration company said they had the capability to carry out the most exhaustive search yet for the missing aircraft.