Malaysiakini
Mar 14, 2014

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 appears to be shifting back and forth between east and west of peninsula Malaysia, with latest information from scientists in China suggesting that the plane may have triggered a seismic event when it impacted the sea some 150km off the southern tip of Vietnam.

A team of seismologists at a top China research university said they detected a slight seismic event on the sea floor between Vietnam and Malaysia on March 8 which could be a result of an impact.

“It was a non-seismic zone, therefore judging from the time and location of the event, it might be related to the missing MH370 flight,” said a statement posted on the University of Science and Technology of China website.

This was also reported by the South China Morning Post.

This comes as US officials begin to set their eyes in the Indian Ocean after almost a week of futile search in the South China Sea, citing indications that the plane may have turned around after losing communication and flown on westwards for several hours.

The 2.55am seismic event reportedly occurred 116km northeast from where MH370 disappeared from civilian radar over the Gulf of Thailand or 85 minutes after it lost communication.

“If it was indeed an airplane crashing into the sea, the seismic wave strength indicated that the crash process was catastrophic,” the statement said.

Although yet to be conclusively determined, authorities seem to be leaning towards the possibility that the plane was airborne at least for a while longer after it lost all communications and fell off the radar.

Initial fear was that the aircraft, with 239 on board, had crashed into the South China Sea, however, almost a week of combing at the ocean has yet to yield any results.