On March 3, at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of flight MH370, the Malaysian Transport Minister announced a new search. If approved by the government, the search will be conducted by the American seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity.
Searches for missing plane MH370 10 years on
This photo of MH370 was taken in December 2011. (Photo: Laurent ERRERA).
On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing when it deviated from its planned route, turning west over the Malay Peninsula.
The Boeing 777, carrying 239 people from 15 countries, is believed to have veered off course and flown southwest for several hours after losing radar contact. Some officials believe it may have crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean after running out of fuel, but years of extensive search efforts have yielded no answers. No victims or wreckage have been found.
Why Flight MH370 went off course and its exact location remain one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time. Malaysian officials this week called for a new search operation.
The first phase of the search lasted 52 days and was conducted mainly from the air, covering 4.5 million square kilometers, involving 334 search flights. No wreckage was found.
Two subsequent underwater searches in the Indian Ocean also failed to find any evidence of the main crash site.
Simulated image of MH370 crashing into the sea
The first underwater search, led by Australia, covered 120,000 square kilometres and extended 50 nautical miles past the seventh arc. In January 2017, the governments of Australia, Malaysia and China officially called off the underwater search after scouring about 74,000 square metres of the Indian Ocean floor, in an effort that cost $150 million.
In January 2018, the Malaysian government began another underwater search in partnership with Ocean Infinity after pressure from families of the missing passengers and crew. After more than three months, the search effort led by Ocean Infinity ended without finding any evidence of the plane’s whereabouts.
Although the wreckage of the plane has never been found, about 20 pieces of debris suspected to be from the plane have been found scattered along the coast of mainland Africa and on the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues.
Debris believed to be from MH370 on display in 2019. Photo: EPA
In the summer of 2015, investigators determined that a large object that washed up on the shores of Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, was a flaperon from a Boeing 777, making it likely to be debris from MH370.
Another piece of debris, a triangular piece of fiberglass and aluminum composite with the words “No Step” written on the side, was found in February 2016 on an uninhabited sandbank along the coast of Mozambique.
Then, in September 2016, the Australian government confirmed that the piece of aircraft that washed up on a Tanzanian island was from Flight MH370. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau matched its identification number to that of the missing Boeing 777.
Restart the search for MH370
The fate of MH370 remains unclear as there are many hypotheses.
Even though it has been a full decade since the mysterious disappearance of MH370, a new search may soon be underway.
Malaysian officials said in a statement this week that the government was ready to discuss a new search operation after being approached by the company Ocean Infinity.
Oliver Plunkett, chief executive of Ocean Infinity, said in a statement that the company could now reopen the search for the plane, after efforts six years ago failed to yield answers.
“This search is arguably the most challenging and indeed the most relevant search to date,” said Plunkett. “We are working with a number of experts, some outside Ocean Infinity, to continue to analyse the data in the hope of narrowing the search area down to an area where success is likely.”
Technology has improved significantly since the first underwater searches. Ocean Infinity is using a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles with improved resolution. The proposed search will also use remotely operated surface vessels.
In the area where the search took place, the ocean is about 4,000 metres deep. The water temperature is 1–2°C, with low currents. This means that even after 10 years, the site may still be relatively intact. Therefore, there is a high chance that the wreckage can still be found.
If future searches are successful, this will bring closure not only to the families of those killed but also to the thousands of people who participated in the search effort.
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