Flight MH370: Investigators believe they have been looking in the wrong place

Dutch company Fugro, which has been searching for the debris of missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370, said it is likely they have been looking in the wrong part of the Indian Ocean for the past two years. Led by the engineering group Fugro, investigators now believe the flight might have glided down, rather than dived in the final moments before the crash, and gone beyond the area chalked out according to calculations based on satellite images.

Fugro project director Paul Kennedy said that a skilled pilot could glide the aircraft approximately 120 miles (193 km) from its cruising altitude after running out of fuel. Till date, nothing has been found. "If it's not there, it means it's somewhere else," said Kennedy.

The search, which covered an area of 1,20,000 sq km of the southern Indian Ocean off western Australia, is likely to end in October. Three countries – Malaysia, China and Australia - will meet on Friday and decide whether to continue the search or call it off. If the countries decide to carry on, it will need a fresh round of funding from the three governments. Approximately $137 million (Rs 912 crore) has been spent on the search till now, making it the most expensive hunt in aviation history.

However, investigating agencies America's Boeing Co, France's Thales SA, the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States, British satellite company Inmarsat PLC, the United Kingdom Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation do not believe Kennedy's theory.

Flight MH370, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board.

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