Mumbai: The trauma of the family members of passengers of MH370 does not seem to be ending anytime soon as the long and fruitless search for the missing Malaysian jet may have to start all over again. Fresh speculations suggest that the aircraft may have landed somewhere, according to the Daily Mail.
Sources within the search team believe that the aircraft might have never crashed into the Indian Ocean, according to the report. Instead, it could have landed elsewhere and search operations should now be diverted, the report said. It is also believed that the aircraft could have landed somewhere and the debris were being hunted in the wrong places.
“The international team searching the Indian Ocean for the Boeing 777 are now considering the seemingly impossible scenario of the aircraft having 'landed' somewhere, instead of crashing in the southern Indian Ocean,” the report said.
However, if no debris are found in the next few days the team may shift search focus to new areas and start from scratch. “We may have to regroup soon to look into this possibility if no positive results come back in the next few days,” sources within the International Investigation Team were quoted as telling the New Straits Times on Tuesday.
The sources have not mentioned yet which could be the next search areas. “The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible, as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to MH370,” sources were quoted as telling the paper, adding, “However, the possibility of a specific country hiding the plane when more than 20 nations are searching for it, seems absurd”.
But they admitted that it was difficult to determine if the plane had really ended in the Indian Ocean, despite calculations seeming to point to that direction. “However, we can't focus on one place too long as the ocean is very big, although the search team has been following the leads received and analysed.”
“There is no physical evidence and we are totally depending on scientific calculations since day one, including the pings,” the source added.
Malaysian authorities are hoping for more countries to come forward and share their crucial satellite and radar data. The search is now into its 45th day.
