MH370 search: Two shipwrecks identified as 19th century merchant vessels

A search for missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 led to the discovery of the origin of two shipwrecks in the southern Indian Ocean. The wrecks were identified on Thursday as 19th century merchant vessels carrying coal, each holding up to 30 crew members, AFP reported.

The MH370 flight disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A massive search operation by several countries was suspended in January 2017 after it found no sign of the jet.

However, the search was restarted in January this year. The Malaysian government signed an agreement to pay a United States seabed exploration firm $70 million (approximately Rs 467 crore) if it managed to find the plane’s wreckage.

The Western Australian Museum analysed sonar and video data to identify the two shipwrecks – which were discovered in 2015 – on Thursday. But the museum’s curator of maritime archaeology, Ross Anderson, said determining the exact identity of the vessels was difficult as research into lost ships was incomplete, ABC Online reported.

“However, we can narrow the possibilities to some prime candidates based on available information from predominantly British shipping sources,” he added. “For the wooden ship, the brig W Gordon and the barque Magdala are two possible candidates. For the iron ship the barques Kooringa, Lake Ontario and West Ridge are possible, with the West Ridge best fitting the evidence.”

The wooden ship’s hull has completely degraded during the intervening years, ABC Online reported. Only the ship’s coal cargo and its metal fastenings are intact. Anderson said the ship may have sunk due to a major catastrophe such as an explosion on board.

Investigators also found a large rectangular metal object about six metres long at the site, which was later identified as the ship’s water tank, Anderson said.