Latest report suggests Flight MH370 made rapid descent

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has reported that analysis of two wing flaps that have been recovered and which have been identified as coming from the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 would indicate that they were not in the landing position when the plane descended.
Flight MH370 disappeared without trace in March last year with 239 people on board while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. This latest report is backed up by satellite data which indicated a “high and increasing rate of descent”, leading analysts to believe the plane made a rapid and uncontrolled descent into the Indian Ocean
Peter Foley, the ATSB search director, told reporters that: “You can draw your own conclusions as to whether that means someone was in control or not.”
The latest news comes just before a team of international aviation and communications experts convene in Canberra to establish what the next stage of the search for the missing plane will be. Currently, over 120,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean seabed has been scoured with no success, while only seven of 20 pieces of debris found have been identified as definitely, or highly likely to have come from the plane.
The wing flap which carried the unique numbers of MH370 was “most likely in the retracted position at the time it separated from the wing,” meaning that it was not readied for landing, according to the report, which also used mathematical models together with replica parts to establish how the identified items of debris may have moved through the water.
The report also indicated that the debris in question was from “within the current search area or further north”, which might indicate that the agency may well be considering listening to demands for the search area to be widened.