Flap may help unravel Flight 370’s final moments

Investigators believe debris found off Tanzania in June offers the best new clue to the final moments of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, including whether it was under pilot control. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which has spent weeks studying the piece—a main flap from a Boeing 777, which experts say is “highly likely” to be from Flight 370—aims to complete its analysis in around two weeks. Its conclusions will be part of a broader report to be reviewed by experts, including from Boeing Co., before being released to the public. Authorities have long believed the plane wasn’t under human control at the time of its apparent crash, based on communications between the aircraft and an Inmarsat PLC satellite. That communications data suggest Flight 370 was plummeting at a rate of at least 12,000 feet a minute when it entered the water. However, another theory — that the plane was in a controlled glide following a loss of engine power — hasn’t been ruled out, though authorities consider it less likely. While either theory would lead to largely the same search area, the edges would vary; a simulation shows the aircraft, starting from 40,000 feet, could have gone an extra 140 miles if under control. Peter Foley, program director for the Operational Search for Flight 370 at the ATSB, said the main flap is particularly significant because damage analysis may determine how it broke off the plane. Unlike other parts recovered so far, such as the flaperon found on Réunion Island and being examined in France, the main flap is deployed manually. “It has to be deployed by a human, from the cockpit,” Foley said. “And you have to have hydraulic power to do so.”<br/>