Deeper Understanding Into Final Moments Of MH370

15 April, 2024

6 min read

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Geoffrey Thomas

Geoffrey Thomas

15 April, 2024

British Aerospace engineer and MH370 expert Richard Godfrey has published fascinating details of the last minutes of the flight of MH370 which reinforces his WSPRnet technology which has pinpointed a final resting place for the Boeing 777.

The analysis on his website is compelling reading and reveals once again Mr Godfrey's deep understanding of everything Boeing 777 and how the various factors give us a clear picture of the final resting place of Mh370.

Mr Godfrey using WSPR tracking to follow MH 370 has identified an area between 39.9 nmi and 40.9 nmi from the 7th Arc at 00:19:29 UTC on March 8, 2024. That area is 1560km west of Perth, Western Australia as under;

MH370

Mr Godfrey's post starts thus:

"There has been discussion again recently about the missing Inmarsat satellite data from the In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) setup message, which was not received as expected at around 00:21:06 UTC, around 90 seconds following the Satellite Data Unit (SDU) reboot, which started at 00:19:29.416 UTC and was acknowledged at 00:19:37.443 UTC. The SDU reboot is thought to have occurred due to the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) coming online following dual engine flameout and fuel exhaustion to the engines and just prior to fuel exhaustion to the APU.

"The APU fuel feed is lower in the fuel tank and allows 30 lbs of fuel to the APU after fuel exhaustion to the main engines, assuming the aircraft is in a normal flight attitude. The APU when electrically loaded runs for a maximum of 13 minutes 45 seconds on 30 lbs of fuel.

"When both engines flame out, the APU autostart sequence begins and takes around 60 seconds for power to come online. We know that the SDU reboot started at 00:19:29.416 UTC and from the manufacturer’s tests the SDU required approximately 60 seconds to transmit a log-on request after the power application. This means the APU came online at around 00:18:30 UTC and the autostart sequence commenced around 00:17:30 UTC and the APU fuel would last at a maximum until 00:32:15 UTC.

"The failure to receive the IFE signal is falsely used by some MH370 analysts as proof that the crash occurred before 00:21:06 UTC and therefore the crash was close to the 7th Arc.

"As Capt. Patrick Blelly points out, it is perfectly possible that one or both engines were shut down at the end of flight to preserve fuel for the APU in order to provide essential hydraulic and electrical power to the aircraft. Capt. Patrick Blelly further points out that this would enable the flaps to be extended for a controlled ditching. Capt. Patrick Blelly and Jean-Luc Marchand show that an active pilot can perform a glide with 30° flaps extended and this could result in a controlled ditching between 00:28:20 UTC and 00:35:30 UTC. The crash point in this case is between 45.4 nmi and 66.8 nmi from the 7th Arc at 00:19:29 UTC.

"However, the hypothesis that the flaps were extended is in contradiction to the ATSB findings, where they point out that the damage to the Outboard Flap recovered from Pemba Island, Tanzania that they subsequently analysed shows that it was not extended at impact.

Suggested Read: The 10 most asked questions on the Mh370 search

"The Ram Air Turbine (RAT) can also be deployed manually from the cockpit overhead panel or automatically when hydraulic or electrical power is lost from the main engines and the APU. The RAT does not provide hydraulics to be able to extend the flaps however, the pilot would require APU power for flap extension......"

To read the rest of the report click this link.

In summary, Mr Godfrey says:

The WSPR crash location aligns with the:

1. Boeing fuel endurance and fuel range.

2. Inmarsat satellite data.

3. Boeing end-of-flight simulations.

4. ATSB found that the flaps were not extended.

5. Damage to 43 items of MH370 floating debris recovered around the Indian Ocean that show the crash was a high energy impact.

6. UWA drift analysis predicted a crash area between 28.297°S and 33.172°S long on the 7th Arc.

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