Flight MH370 latest: missing plane 'plunged into death spiral' before crashing into sea, experts behind new TV documentary say

Olivia Tobin24 September 2018

Flight MH370 plunged into a "death spiral" before it crashed into the sea, according to experts who have reconstructed the plane's final moments for a TV documentary.

Mystery has surrounded the doomed flight since it vanished on March 8, 2014 with families still in the dark about what happened to their loves ones.

The new documentary for National Geographic has tried to recreate the pilot's final moments using theories from experts.

Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have in the past suggested that the plane ran out of fuel after flying in the wrong direction over the Indian Ocean for six hours.

CGI images show what happens when a Boeing 777 runs out of fuel
National Geographic

The National Geographic programme, Drain the Oceans, has tried to simulate what happens when a Boeing 777 runs out of fuel.

Engineers on the television programme said the right engine would have capitulated first, meaning the autopilot would have lurched the plane to the left to compensate.

Sarah Nor (C), the mother of Norliakmar Hamid, a passenger on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at the Ministry of Transport headquarters in Putrajaya, Malaysia
EPA

Following this, the left engine would have also stopped working two minutes later.

After the two engines had stopped working, experts believe the plane would have been sent on a ‘death spiral’ into the sea, where a high-impact crash would have killed all 239 passengers on board.

Perth production company Electric Pictures in behind the episode and worked closely with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the official MH370 government investigation team.

The episode with air on the National Geographic on Thursday
National Geographic

The 2014 flight was travelling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, before it went missing.

There had been speculation that the plane crashed due to a deliberate 'murder-suicide' plot by pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, however this has been refuted by official investigators.

Although some debris from the plane has been found off the coast of Africa, no part of the main body has been discovered despite a 46,000-square mile search of the Indian Ocean.

The second search for the aircraft was called off earlier this year, on May 29.

Malaysians look at the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mural painting at Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur
EPA

Speaking at the time, Australian Transport Minister Michael McCormack said the four-year search had been the largest in aviation history and tested the limits of technology and the capacity of experts and people at sea.

He said: "Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the 239 people on board MH370," Mr McCormack's office said in a statement.

"We will always remain hopeful that one day the aircraft will be located."

Drain The Oceans: Malaysia Airlines 370 airs on National Geographic this Thursday 27 September at 8pm

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in