Lessons learnt from the drift analysis of MH370 debris
The precise last position of Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines (MH370) that disappeared from radar screens on 8 March 2014 is still unknown. Multiple large-scale search missions have failed. The discovery of several items of debris along the shore of the western Indian Ocean in the subsequent years brought renewed hope. Shortly after the sighting of the first piece of debris, a flaperon on La Réunion in 2015, a team of scientists at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre of Ocean Research Kiel started to simulate its possible drift in the hope of narrowing down the area of the possible crash site. A few months later, a European consortium was able to refine the calculations by adding the effect of surface waves. Their result: The most likely crash site is located west of Australia, north of the search area.