On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of the Malaysian Boeing, there is a real chance of its discovery

The tragedy of the Malaysian Boeing actually became a pain for the whole world. The plane’s disappearance prompted a massive, years-long search operation involving 30 countries, not to mention in-depth analysis on television shows and a Netflix documentary series.

Last week, at a commemoration event to mark the 10th anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the government was open to further search operations if there was credible evidence. The American company recently submitted a proposal to the government that has given hope to relatives of the missing passengers.

In the early hours of March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, suddenly disappeared from radar. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board the Boeing 777 aircraft. The passengers came from 14 countries, but most were Chinese.

The last message from the plane came 38 minutes after takeoff, while it was over the South China Sea. Military radar recorded it veering sharply off course and heading west before the signal was lost. It is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean while in an Australian search and rescue zone.

A search began, with authorities in Malaysia, Australia and China agreeing to comb more than 23,000 square miles of ocean for clues.

In January 2015, Malaysian officials declared the disappearance of Flight 370 an accident and the passengers and crew on board were presumed dead, clearing the way for the airline to pay compensation to the families.

In April 2015, Malaysia, Australia and China doubled their underwater search area to 46,300 square miles.

The clue appeared in July 2015, about 2,800 miles from the search site. A piece of debris that bears a striking resemblance to a moving wing part found on a Boeing 777 washed up on the small French Indian Ocean island of Reunion. French experts who examined the part concluded that it belonged to the ill-fated aircraft.

By 2016, more debris had been found by other countries: part of a wing in the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, segments of a door and engine on the beaches of Mauritius and South Africa, part of an outer wing flap off the coast of Tanzania, and pieces of a wing off Mozambique.

In May, the head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Martin Dolan, admitted that the “possibility” of finding the missing plane was diminishing.

Underwater searches for a section of the Indian Ocean between May 2014 and January 2017 ended without success. Australia led the operation with support from Malaysia and China, and officials from the three countries said the decision to end the operation “was not taken lightly or without sadness.”

“Despite best efforts using the best available science, cutting-edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly qualified specialists who are the best in their field, unfortunately the aircraft could not be located,” they said in a statement.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a report that the cause of the plane’s mysterious disappearance could not be determined without identifying its whereabouts.

In January 2018, Texas-based Ocean Infinity began a new search for the plane’s wreckage, searching 43,000 square miles of ocean based on analysis of debris drift. The company entered into a contract with the Malaysian government worth up to $70 million on a “no find, no fee” basis, but this did not bear fruit either.

Malaysian authorities released a report in July that concluded the plane was manually diverted from its flight path and ruled out mechanical or computer failure as the cause of the plane’s disappearance.

The 495-page report cited lapses by Malaysian Air Traffic Control, prompting the resignation of the civil aviation chief.

Family members of those who went missing during the flight are demanding answers and insisting that the search continues. Speaking at a memorial ceremony for families of passengers on the fateful flight this week, Malaysian Transport Minister Loke said the government was willing to invite Ocean Infinity to discuss another search using new technology if credible evidence was established.

“I will do everything possible to get cabinet approval to sign a new contract with Ocean Infinity so that the search can resume as soon as possible,” the minister said.

The company’s chief executive, Oliver Plunkett, confirmed that a new proposal had been submitted and that “we hope to return to the search soon.” He added that since its last attempt, the company has expanded its ocean search capabilities using robotics and other technologies.

One expert said a new search of the deep ocean is warranted.

“On the one hand, the mystery itself cannot be completely solved. Because I don’t know how much evidence there is to say what actually happened to the plane. But finding the wreck will finally bring some relief to those who have lost loved ones,” said Charitha Pattiaratchi, a professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia, who carried out drift analysis to predict the whereabouts of the wreck.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, retired British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey suggested that radio frequency technology could provide answers to questions about the resting place of the doomed airliner.

But now Richard’s theory is being tested by experts from the University of Liverpool, who will study how aircraft can be tracked using a “weak signal propagation protocol” (WSPR).

Richard Godfrey is confident: “It will take another search and we will find MH370. I think we didn’t find it simply because we didn’t look wide enough from the 7th arc.”

Now that the Malaysian government is ready to support a new investigation into the disappearance of MH370 if new evidence emerges and experts begin to test the validity of WSPR technology, it is believed that Godfrey’s theory could pave the way for success in the investigation.

Every two minutes, transmitters around the world send out thousands of low-power radio pulses. It is believed that when an aircraft crosses these “trip ropes”, the disturbance is recorded in the database and the aircraft’s flight path can be tracked.

Richard Godfrey recorded 130 WSPR signal violations over the southern Indian Ocean on the night of 8 March. He believes this is evidence of MH370’s final flight path. The disturbance ends at a point just beyond the 7th arc – in an area that has not yet been covered by any underwater search.

Autonomous systems professor Simon Maskell told the BBC: “It’s entirely possible that WSPR is working. This has not yet been proven. Proving whether WSPR works is what we are trying to do now. We want to use all the global data from all the planes flying in a day, and this will give us several times more data than Richard was previously able to consider. The system will attempt to track every aircraft in the sky for 24 hours. If a high success rate is achieved, it will provide strong evidence that WSPR can be used to detect aircraft. I hope we will find out if WSPR will provide information related to MH370 in the next six months or so. If WSPR works, we will know where MH370 was when it fell into the ocean, and therefore where it is now. Then we can head there and pick him up. And it would be a great day.”