Failed search for Flight MH370 yielded two unlikely finds

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One of the wreck sites that were discovered during the search for Flight MH370.Australian Transport Safety Bureau

The search for a Malaysian jetliner that disappeared four years ago with 239 people on board is being credited with cracking a pair of Victorian maritime mysteries.

Sonar devices have so far failed to find the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished March 8, 2014, while on a flight from Kuala Lumlur to Bejing — but have managed to discover two Indian Ocean shipwrecks.

One is thought to be the West Ridge, a 220-foot iron barque built in Scotland that was lost with 28 crewmen while carrying British coal to India in 1883, the UK’s Telegraph reported.

It was found Dec. 19, 2015, lying upright 12,000 feet below the surface about 1,500 miles off the western coast of Australia.

Scientists found a piece of coal in the debris that suggested the ship was British. Other items, including anchors and metal fasteners, led experts to identify the West Ridge as the likeliest candidate.

But Ross Anderson, a maritime archaeologist at the West Australian Museum, has not ruled out two other possibilities – the Kooringa and the Lake Ontario, which sank in 1894 and 1897, respectively.

Meanwhile, the wreckage of a wooden ship was located on May 19, 2015, about 22 miles from the iron vessel’s debris.

Using records, scientists have narrowed down the identity of the ship — which weighed between 250 and 880 tons — to one of two vessels.

One is the W. Gordon, which sank during a voyage from Scotland to Australia in 1877 with 10 crew members on board; the other is the Magdala, which was lost five years later en route from Wales to Indonesia.

“Most of the material widely scattered on the seabed consists of the remains of the coal cargo that had spilt out of the hull prior to it striking the seabed,” Anderson told the Telegraph.

“The evidence points to the ship sinking as a result of a catastrophic event such as explosion, which was common in the transport of coal cargoes,” Anderson said.

He said more work is needed before his team can be certain about the identity of the wrecks.

“If it was a shipwreck that we could dive on … we’d be looking for any artifacts like ceramics or bottles or anything that could confirm providence,” he added.

“These are the deepest wrecks so far located in the Indian Ocean, they’re some of the most remote shipwrecks in the world, so we try to maximize any information.”

The futile search by Malaysia, Australia and China for the lost Boeing 777 ended in January 2016 after 1,046 days.

A Texas-based company, Ocean Infinity, has taken up the search under a 90-day contract with the Malaysian government.

“While it’s disappointing there has been no sign of MH370 in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau search area and farther north, there is still some search time remaining,” Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett said Monday, the UK’s Guardian reported.