The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has revealed a previously uncharted shipwreck, leading officials to say on Wednesday that if the plane is in their search field it will be found.
The team is searching the southern belt of the Indian Ocean seabed in hopes of finding the remains of the MH370, which vanished on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
No wreckage from the flight, which was carrying 239 people, has been found yet.
In an update on the search, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it had spotted “multiple small bright reflections” on the otherwise featureless seabed which warranted close inspection.
A high-resolution sonar scan using an autonomous underwater vehicle revealed possible items, mostly only about the size of a cricket ball, some 3,900 metres (12,795 feet) underwater.
While the debris field appeared to be of human-made origin, it failed to have all the characteristics of a typical aircraft debris field so authorities sent down an underwater camera which discovered the shipwreck.
“It’s a fascinating find. But it’s not what we were looking for,” said Peter Foley, director, operational search.
Images clearly showed an anchor, along with other objects the searchers said were clearly human-made.
Foley said officials were not pausing in their search. “Obviously, we’re disappointed that it wasn’t the aircraft, but we were always realistic about the likelihood,” he said.
“And this event has really demonstrated that the systems, people and the equipment involved in the search are working well. It’s shown that if there’s a debris field in the search area, we’ll find it,” he added.
The search for the missing aircraft has been a complex undertaking, with Australia concentrating on a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean far off its west coast spanning 60,000 square kilometres.
