Eight years after, Malaysia mulls new search mission for doomed flight MH370
Malaysian authorities are considering resuming the search mission for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after Australian air safety investigators have quietly launched a review of their search for the plane, nearly eight years after it disappeared with 239 people on board.
The move follows a report by UK aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey who claims to have located the plane’s crash site using “breakthrough technology” in the Indian Ocean, 1,993 kilometers west of Perth with the wreckage now lying some 4,000 meters below the surface.
Malaysia’s transport ministry in a statement on February 18 said it would consult the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) after the latter completes reviewing documents produced by Godfrey and if “credible evidence” is obtained on the matter.
One of world’s greatest aviation mysteries
Flight MH370 became one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries when the Boeing 777-200 plane suddenly vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Malaysia, China and Australia started a joint $200-million underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean but called it off in January 2017 after finding no trace of the aircraft. A second three-month search led by US firm Ocean Infinity also ended unsuccessful in May the following year.
The location pinpointed by Godfrey was not in the original search area defined by the ATSB in 2015, but it does fall within the extended 120,000-square kilometer 2016 search area. On its subsequent search, Ocean Infinity is believed to have missed the location by just 28 kilometers during its mission in 2018.
Combined data analysis gives new leads
Godfrey said he used a high-tech system called weak signal propagation, a computer protocol to analyse radio waves, to track the plane’s final movements and combined it with satellite data, oceanography and drift analysis and performance data from Boeing, concluding that “all four align with one particular point in the Indian Ocean.”
Malaysia’s transport ministry noted that it remained “sympathetic to the family members of the victims and is also of the view that careful consideration and study should be given to any new credible evidence which may be put forth to identify the location of the aircraft.”
[caption id="attachment_38239" align="alignleft" width="300"] Potential location of MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean[/caption] Malaysian authorities are considering resuming the search mission for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after Australian air safety investigators have quietly launched a review of their search for the plane, nearly eight years after it disappeared with 239 people on board. The move follows a report by UK aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey who claims to have located the plane’s crash site using “breakthrough technology” in the Indian Ocean, 1,993 kilometers west of Perth with the wreckage now lying some 4,000 meters below the surface. Malaysia’s transport ministry in...
Malaysian authorities are considering resuming the search mission for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after Australian air safety investigators have quietly launched a review of their search for the plane, nearly eight years after it disappeared with 239 people on board.
The move follows a report by UK aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey who claims to have located the plane’s crash site using “breakthrough technology” in the Indian Ocean, 1,993 kilometers west of Perth with the wreckage now lying some 4,000 meters below the surface.
Malaysia’s transport ministry in a statement on February 18 said it would consult the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) after the latter completes reviewing documents produced by Godfrey and if “credible evidence” is obtained on the matter.
One of world’s greatest aviation mysteries
Flight MH370 became one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries when the Boeing 777-200 plane suddenly vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Malaysia, China and Australia started a joint $200-million underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean but called it off in January 2017 after finding no trace of the aircraft. A second three-month search led by US firm Ocean Infinity also ended unsuccessful in May the following year.
The location pinpointed by Godfrey was not in the original search area defined by the ATSB in 2015, but it does fall within the extended 120,000-square kilometer 2016 search area. On its subsequent search, Ocean Infinity is believed to have missed the location by just 28 kilometers during its mission in 2018.
Combined data analysis gives new leads
Godfrey said he used a high-tech system called weak signal propagation, a computer protocol to analyse radio waves, to track the plane’s final movements and combined it with satellite data, oceanography and drift analysis and performance data from Boeing, concluding that “all four align with one particular point in the Indian Ocean.”
Malaysia’s transport ministry noted that it remained “sympathetic to the family members of the victims and is also of the view that careful consideration and study should be given to any new credible evidence which may be put forth to identify the location of the aircraft.”
