Australia exploration company says it may have found MH370

Kuala Lumpur: An Australian marine exploration company has claimed that it has found the wreckage of the crashed Malaysian plane in the Bay of Bengal, 5,000 km away from the current search location in the Indian Ocean.

Adelaide-based GeoResonance on Monday said it had begun its own search for the missing flight MH370 on March 10 and that it has detected possible wreckage in the Bay of Bengal, 5000km away from the current search location, the Star newspaper reported.

GeoResonance's search covered 2,000,000 square kilometres of the possible crash zone, using images obtained from satellites and aircraft, with company scientists focusing their efforts north of plane's last known location, using over 20 technologies to analyse the data including a nuclear reactor, company spokesperson David Pope said. He claimed his company used technology originally designed to find nuclear warheads and submarines.

Pope said GeoResonance compared their findings with images taken on March 5, three days before MH370 went missing, and did not find what they had detected at the spot. "The wreckage wasn't there prior to the disappearance of MH370. We're not trying to say it definitely is MH370. However, it is a lead we feel should be followed up," said Pope.

Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation Director-General Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told the paper that Malaysia was unaware of the report of the finding. "We will have to check and verify this report," he said.

Another GeoResonance spokesperson, Pavel Kursa, said several elements found in commercial airliners were detected at the Bay of Bengal spot identified by GeoResonance. "We identified chemical elements and materials that make up a Boeing 777...these are aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials," said Kursa in a statement.

The Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370-carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese nationals - had mysteriously vanished on March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.

The mystery of the missing plane continued to baffle aviation and security authorities who have so far not succeeded in tracking the aircraft despite deploying hi-tech radar and other gadgets.