MH370 Update: Shipwreck Discovered Consider As Class 2 As 'Potential Interest But Unlikely To Be Related' To The Aircraft
The search for MH370 still continues and over 75 percent of the seafloor in the initial search area has already been combed while a shipwreck has been discovered and categorized as class 2.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency leading the underwater search, has shared latest MH370 operation update on May 13, which stated that the shipwreck that has been discovered has been categorized as class 2 "of potential interest but unlikely to be related to MH370."
"Fugro Equator's deep tow system detected a cluster of small sonar contacts in the southern part of the search area, 12 nautical miles to the east of the 7th arc. The sonar data was carefully analysed and categorised as Class 2 - 'of potential interest but unlikely to be related to MH370.' It could not, however, be ruled out," it said.
The Fugro Supporter has been tasked to further investigate the contact and a high-resolution sonar scan was performed using the AUV, in which that data revealed a large number of sonar contacts lying very close to the seafloor with a depth around 3900 meters.
The said debris appeared to be of man-made and the ATSB clarified that it did not exhibit "all the characteristic" of an aircraft debris.
"Analysis of the images this week revealed that the debris was indeed man-made, but indicated that it was actually the wreck of a ship. This wreck his previously uncharted and the imagery will be provided to expert marine archaeologists for possible identification.
Moreover, Gospel Herald reported that Peter Foley the ATSB director for the operational search for the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 said that the ship is a "fascinating find" but it is not what they are looking for.
However, he stated that the discovery of the shipwreck demonstrated that the equipment and people are working well and added that "it's shown that if there's a debris field in the search area, we'll find it."
