Investigators searching for flight MH370 consider a catastrophic event leading to oxygen starvation the most likely scenario in the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777.
The Australian-led search team say that the plane was flying on autopilot on a consistent course when it finally crashed into the ocean when its engines flamed out.
The search team stressed that this was only a working assumption – rather than any cause identified by accident investigators under the legal lead of the Malaysian government. But a report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said that of the classes of accidents that appeared relevant, satellite data of the flight pattern pointed to likely depressurisation and hypoxia rendering the crew unconscious.
It says the loss of MH370 most resembles flights including the Helios Airways "ghost flight" of 2005, which flew for two hours on autopilot after air pressure dropped and its pilots lost consciousness before crashing into a mountain 25 miles north of Athens.
Chief commissioner of ATSB, Martin Dolan, said it was "highly, highly likely" that MH370 was on autopilot for hours before it crashed, because of the orderly path the plane took.
26/06/14 Gwyn Topham and Bridie Jabour/The Guardian.com
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The Australian-led search team say that the plane was flying on autopilot on a consistent course when it finally crashed into the ocean when its engines flamed out.
The search team stressed that this was only a working assumption – rather than any cause identified by accident investigators under the legal lead of the Malaysian government. But a report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said that of the classes of accidents that appeared relevant, satellite data of the flight pattern pointed to likely depressurisation and hypoxia rendering the crew unconscious.
It says the loss of MH370 most resembles flights including the Helios Airways "ghost flight" of 2005, which flew for two hours on autopilot after air pressure dropped and its pilots lost consciousness before crashing into a mountain 25 miles north of Athens.
Chief commissioner of ATSB, Martin Dolan, said it was "highly, highly likely" that MH370 was on autopilot for hours before it crashed, because of the orderly path the plane took.
26/06/14 Gwyn Topham and Bridie Jabour/The Guardian.com
