Searching for a missing plane they found a wreck from the 19th century!

Australian media have reported that a search for the wreckage of a Malaysian boeing in Pacific waters has accidentally uncovered the wreckage of a 19th century ship. Penetrating the waters of Western Australia with sonar, they found a cluster of objects located at a depth of 4.5km.

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Despite the search team’s conviction that this was not a missing plane that had simply disappeared on 8 March 2014, they decided to look a little closer at the find. Just in case. An AUV robot was sent to the bottom and located a number of quite smaller and a few larger objects. The largest of these was about 6 metres long. As the discovered remains looked man-made, it was decided to send a camera to the bottom.

The analysis of the recorded photographs made it possible to determine that a previously unknown wreck had been found. The case has already been dealt with by specialists in underwater archaeology, who will try to identify the vessel on the basis of this documentation. Among other things, an anchor was found in the photographs.

“This is a fascinating discovery, however, we are looking for something else and we are not stopping our efforts. As a matter offact after our search unit is already penetrating more sites,” Peter Foley of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau summed up the situation.

Archaeologist Michael McCarthy of the West Australian Maritime Museum said that, based on the material at their disposal, it was most likely a cargo ship built in the mid to late 19th century.

“We have quite a few stories about ships that have sunk in the Indian Ocean in this area. Without a complete catalogue of all the vessels lost, it’s really hard to determine what’s what.” – McCarthy explained

Experts predicted that teams searching for the missing boeing would come across shipwrecks which, on their way to Australia, regularly sank due to bad weather or poor technical condition. The lack of valuable cargo, the enormous depth and the enormous cost of the expedition mean that there is little chance of finding out the identity of this particular wreck and many others like it.

Source: news.yahoo.com