By jaskiran kaur | April 29, 2014
International Business Times

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has recently announced the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has “entered a new phase,” focusing on larger area of the ocean floor.

Meanwhile, an American pilot claimed he has found wreckage of the missing airline. After 52 days of the search mission, Michael Hoebel, a pilot from New York, believed he has found the wreckage site of missing jet, Daily Mail reported.

The 60-year-old pilot reportedly spent hours scrutinizing satellite images made available to the general public by the Web site TomNod.com, before he concluded MH370 was lying underneath the Indian Ocean. He noted he has discovered the outline of the jetliner at the bottom of the ocean, off the northeast coast of Malaysia. The area was west of Songkhla in Thailand.

If debris lying at the bottom of the Indian Ocean were verified to be the missing Boeing 777, then it appeared to be in one piece, as per the image that was taken few days after the alleged crash.

The New York pilot informed his hometown news channel WIVB about his discovery.

“I was taken aback because I couldn’t believe I would find this,” he told WIVB.

Heobel said the doomed missing Boeing 777, matched in its dimensions with the debris he found underneath the ocean.

While comparing the satellite image to the photo of the missing plane, the pilot gave his analysis to the reporter. When asked if it could be a shark, he responded: “That’s a 210ft shark.”

The pilot told he has reached out to Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Transportation Safety Board about his findings.

Meanwhile, an Australian company came forward claiming it may have found missing Malaysian aircraft, according to The Star Online. GeoResonance is based in Adelaide. It said it carried out its own hunt for MH370 that began on March 10 and now the staff believe the potential wreckage was in Bay of Bengal in Indian Ocean. This was 5000 kilometers away from the current search area.

They reportedly explored 2,000,000 square kilometers using satellite and aircraft images. The scientists used over 20 technologies to examine the data obtained from their search area. This included the use of nuclear reactor to search potential wreckage area in the north of missing MH370’s last known location.

They compared their data with the images that were taken on March 5, three days prior to the disappearance of MH370.

“The wreckage wasn’t there prior to the disappearance of MH370. We’re not trying to say that it definitely is MH370, however it is a lead we feel should be followed up,” David Pope, company’s spokesman, said.

Another representative of the company told Australian News Channel 7News that their research was backed up by identification of “chemical elements and materials that make up a Boeing 777 … these are aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials.”

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board. Missing Boeing 777 was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Seven weeks after continuous search efforts, the authorities have failed to find the missing plane. But it was believed the plane “ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”