MH370 ‘flash fire’ theory rejected by air crash experts

Aviation experts have debunked renewed speculation that a “flash fire” brought down Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

An alleged charred piece of wreckage from MH370 as shown on the Seven Network’s news.

International aviation experts have debunked renewed speculation that a “flash fire” brought down Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Air crash investigators and an aerospace engineer say logic combined with the known facts work against the theory, and that the provenance of a supposedly charred piece of wreckage is ­suspect.

They also describe a recent US Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive regarding replacing oxygen mask tubes on Boeing 777s as routine and in this case irrelevant since it would not have applied to MH370.

The FAA had issued the directive to replace “the low-pressure oxygen flex hoses in the gaseous passenger oxygen system” of some 777 models because they could “potentially be conductive” and lead to oxygen fires. But Malaysia Airlines and the FAA have confirmed the model of 777 used on flight MH370 was not equipped with the oxygen system in question.

“The Boeing 777 used in flight MH370 would not have been ­affected by this AD,” the FAA said.

Airlines that do have the model have six years to comply.

The FAA directive was one of two developments this week which prompted renewed discussion about whether a fire could explain the loss of MH370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to ­Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Wing flap is part of MH370

US lawyer Blaine Gibson, who is mounting his own amateur quest to find pieces of MH370 on the African coast and Indian Ocean islands, claims he had found “the most significant piece of potential wreckage” in the form of a blackened piece of panel which he handed over to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

“The top layer of paint has been singed, scorched black,” Mr Gibson told Channel 7 in Perth.

A spokeswoman for the ATSB said the object had “yet to be examined” and “comments about the state of the debris are entirely speculative”.

A member of the independent group of experts investigating the MH370 mystery, British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey, said a photo of the debris “shows burn marks underneath the ­location of a fastener or bracket”.

“This implies that the item, even if from MH370, was thrown on a fire (possibly a beach fire) after the crash.”

Mr Godfrey is one of three experts who say the idea that a fire could explain the loss of MH370 does not add up. “No aircraft with a fire on board managed to fly for much more than 20 minutes, let alone seven hours,” he said.

Veteran US pilot and air crash investigator John Cox said: “In every other case where a fire has existed (eg, UPS 006, Asiana 991, SwissAir 111) the crew has made a radio call and initiated a diversion. MH370 did not do either of those.”

Another investigator described the fire theory as “all but impossible”. “Basic logic says that such a fire does not make any sense when you break it down from an investigation point of view,” he said.