Remnants of volcanoes, towering ridges and deep trenches have been discovered on the seabed of the southern Indian Ocean by experts mapping the underwater terrain as part of the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Australian authorities released the three-dimensional images on Friday, revealing for the first time details about the seafloor where efforts are being concentrated to find the jet, which is presumed to have crashed into the sea on March 8.
The area in which the plane is thought to have gone down is remote and largely unexplored, and officials are conducting an intensive survey of the seabed before the underwater probe for the plane can begin.
"The recently acquired high-resolution bathymetry (underwater survey) data has revealed many of these seabed features for the first time," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the agency leading the search, said in a statement.
"It is also revealing finer-scale seabed features that were not visible in the previous low-resolution, satellite-derived bathymetry data."
The MH370 search area far off Western Australia includes the seabed on and around an extensive, mountainous ridge that once formed the margin between two geological plates.
The expanse has many of the features typically found in such areas, with the tectonic movements having created now-extinct volcanoes, rugged ridges up to 300 metres high and trenches some 1,400 metres deep compared to the surrounding sea floor, the ATSB said.
The bureau said the identification of these features would assist in navigation during the underwater search phase for the Boeing 777, which is due to begin next month.
Australia has vowed to do all it can to find the last resting place of MH370, which was carrying 239 people, many of them Chinese passengers, when it went missing during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The plane is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean far off the west coast of Australia after mysteriously diverting off-course, but a massive air, sea and underwater search has failed to find any wreckage.
Experts have used technical data to finalise its most likely resting place ahead of next month's underwater search.
Pilot theory
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was deliberately crashed by its pilot in an apparent suicide, according to an aviation expert, quoted by the
Metro.
Ewan Wilson, who runs Kiwi Airlines, told experts that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah killed everyone on board by de-pressurising the plane, which caused death from lack of oxygen.
Shah then proceeded to crash the flight after having locked himself in the cockpit, according to the expert.
A slew of reports and claims have emerged as the search for the ill-fated flight continues and this claim will once again put the spotlight back on the pilot.
Indonesia police chief claims to know what happened to plane
Latest update: An Indonesian police chief claims to know what caused MH370 to vanish on March 8, according to the Indonesian news agency Tempo, reported
Yahoo.He told police officials and Lion Air representatives that he had also spoken to the Malaysian police chief.
Meanwhile, Indonesian embassy in Kaula Lumpur has denied the report and also threatened action against the paper.
Malaysian Police have also denied that they kept any secret information.
'Something is being covered up', claims missing passenger's girlfriend
The girlfriend of an American passenger onboard the ill-fated MH370 believes that the investigation is being covered up.
Family members and girlfriend of 50-year-old Philip Wood are now demanding that raw data on the disappearance is released for independent analysis, as they no longer trust the Malaysian investigations, reports
Daily Mail.The woman was quoted as saying that she doesn’t know “how much is being covered up, but knows something is being concealed”, the report added.
Objects detected on seabed
Some hard objects have been detected in the latest search for the missing MH370 plane.
Fresh seabed mapping of the search area found objects which are inconsistent with the region, reported
news.com.auThe objects were identified with satellite-tracking data and flight-simulation analysis, the website quoted 'The Times' report.
Meanwhile, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief told 'The Times' that they were not sure if the objects were the wreckage of the aircraft. It could also be rock formations, he added.
Experts from Australia, Britain and the US are confident they have narrowed the likely resting place to a smaller, 60,000 sq km arc in the Indian Ocean, 1,800km off the coast of Western Australia.
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Diego Garcia and MH370 conspiracy of 'lost' island in middle of it allSix months after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing, relatives of those lost, desperate for any hint of what happened, say Chinese authorities have become openly hostile towards them.
In interviews, several relatives described how they had been detained and physically abused by police - seemingly in retaliation for publicly pressing Chinese and Malaysia Airlines authorities for information about the hunt for the plane.
"In the beginning, Beijing police were protecting us, but their attitude has completely changed," said 38-year-old Cheng Liping, whose husband was on the flight.
"I can't fathom why they're doing this. I feel so incredibly disappointed."
The Boeing 777 aircraft carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared on March 8 after taking off from Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing. About two thirds of those on board were from China.
Investigators say what little evidence they have to work with suggests the plane was deliberately diverted thousands of kilometres from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean.
But no one knows for sure, or why. A painstaking international search has failed to find any trace.
For the relatives, neither their pain nor their single-minded quest for answers has eased, and that seems to have become an annoyance for China's authorities.
Police have beaten at least two people whose children were on the flight, several family members said. In one case, a woman in her fifties was hospitalised for three days.
"I went to see her in hospital, I could see the injuries on her head and body," said Zhang Yongli, 64, whose daughter was on the flight. "The way the police acted was very extreme, it's wrong to treat us this way."
Beijing police did not respond to requests for comment.
China's government has repeatedly said it would spare no effort in the search for the plane and leaders have expressed sympathy for the families.
Public security authorities have not commented on the families but Malaysia Airlines representatives said distraught relatives have sometimes been aggressive.
Some relatives said they believed their homes were being watched. Police have detained people several times at an office the government has set up in a nondescript Beijing suburb where families can go to seek information about the search from Malaysia Airlines and government representatives.
Detentions usually last for about 24 hours, said the families and their lawyer. Police have cited various reasons for the detentions, family members said, including a rule against large gatherings. In a couple of cases, children were taken into custody with adult relatives.
In at least two other cases, recounted to Reuters by relatives, Beijing police went to family members' homes before dawn to detain them without a reason.
"On some level I can understand why the police are doing this - perhaps they're used to only dealing with bad people," said Liu Wanyi, 26, a newlywed whose husband was on the plane.
"But we're not seeking to antagonise the government in any way."
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