Flight MH370 News

Path of MH370 fragment found on a beach in southern Mozambique

Honolulu, March 14, 2016
The IPRC Ocean Drift Model has simulated the drift of the possible MH370 fragment found on December 30, 2015, by the South African teenager Liam Lotter on a beach in southern Mozambique, near the resort town of Xai Xai. The location where this third piece was found is consistent with the drift of the flaperon found on Reunion last July and the piece found end of February 2016 on Paluma Sandbank, off the northeastern tip of the Mozambique Island Benguerra. All 3 pieces appear to have drifted low in the water, consistent with an 0.8% model windage. This newly found piece lends further support to the IPRC model simulations. Model details and search suggestions.

Model results for the drift field of the flaperon found on Reunion Island in July 2015 and the fragment found on Paluma Sand Bank, Mozambique, end of February 2016 and December 30, 2015: Click on links in table for maps and animations.

Windage Percentage
Latest Map
Movie as gif
Movie as avi
Estimated for the flaperon found on Reunion Island in July 2015
0.8%
Estimated for the possible airplane parts found on Mozambique end of February 2016 and December 30, 2015
0.8%

Path of MH370 fragment found on Paluma Sandbank

Honolulu, March 8, 2016
The IPRC Ocean Drift Model has simulated the drift of the possible MH370 fragment found end of February 2016 on Paluma Sandbank, off the northeastern tip of the Mozambique Island Benguerra. The place where this second piece was found is consistent with the drift of the flaperon found on Reunion last July. Both pieces appear to have drifted low in the water, consistent with an 0.8% model windage. This newly found piece lends further support to the IPRC model simulations. Model details and search suggestions.

The image below shows the path and drift timeline (color dates) for the fragment found end of February 2016 on a sandbank off of Benguerra Island, Mozambique, as estimated in the IPRC Ocean Drift Model.

    

IPRC Ocean Drift Model Simulates MH370 Crash Site
and Flow Paths

Honolulu, August 4, 2015
     The IPRC Ocean Drift Model has simulated the drift of the flaperon from Flight MH370 from the likely crash site to Reunion. The developers of this model, Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner, have been using this model to successfully simulate the pathways of millions of tons of marine debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
    Given the lack of information of the flaperon’s orientation in the water and the joint effects of waves and wind on its movements, they explored model solutions in a broad range of windage (critical parameter, characterizing the direct force of the wind on the object). They found that the arrival time of the flaperon on Reunion within the last 3 months is most favorable for 0.8% windage, i.e., the fraction of the local wind velocity added to the ocean current velocity to effectively simulate the drift of the debris in question.

To view the animations of individual and combined windages see table below.

Windage Percentage
Latest Map
Movie as gif
Movie as avi
Combined
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
Estimated for the flaperon found on Reunion Island in July 2015
0.8%