With more than 90 per cent of the search area for MH370 now covered, the company leading recovery efforts has conceded it may have been looking in the wrong place all along.

United has closed one of the most bizarre legal sagas in recent airline history by agreeing to pay a $2.25m fine in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement from the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO). Thus the US major will face no further action over its Newark, New Jersey-Columbia, South Carolina flights, which it allegedly re-instated as a favor to the then chairman of the Ports Authority of New Jersey, David Samson, who had a holiday home in South Carolina.

The opening days of Farnborough 2016 have underlined the power of large engine manufacturers in the aftermarket, though choice remains for narrowbody maintenance.