Everything you need to know about the latest search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
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A new search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 continues, more than 10 years after the plane’s mysterious and mysterious disappearance.
On March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777 went missing while taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing with 249 passengers – most of whom were Chinese citizens, but the plane also included citizens of Malaysia, Canada, France and elsewhere.
To this day, little is known about the disappearance. The plane may have crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, according to an analysis of satellite data, and several small pieces have landed on the east coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean. Otherwise, two previous large-scale searches failed to come up with any significant findings. No bodies or large remains have been found, and no one knows why the plane went down.
But now, a new search is underway, reigniting long-held hopes that this painful mystery may finally be solved.
Here’s everything you need to know about the latest hunt for a missing plane:
Eleven years after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the Malaysian government has authorized a new search for the plane. One company is so convinced that the new technology will help them find it that they have bet $70 million.
Who does the search?
Earlier this month, the Malaysian Ministry of Transport said that Texas-based robotics company Ocean Infinity would resume its deep-sea hunt for the missing plane on December 30.
The latest search began in March, but the operation was halted after several weeks due to bad weather.
The company is conducting the search under a “no gain, no money” contract with the Malaysian government. That means, Ocean Infinity can get $70 million – if major accidents are tracked.
Multiple reports say it is unclear whether Ocean Infinity has any new information about the plane’s whereabouts. But the company’s CEO Oliver Punkett said the company had improved its technology following a fruitless search conducted in 2018 under the same agreement.
Punkett said his team is working with multiple experts to analyze the data, and narrow down the search area to the most likely location, according to reports.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport confirmed that the search launched would be “at a target area assessed as having the highest probability of finding the aircraft.” The exact location has not been disclosed, but the search will be conducted in a 15,000-square kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean.
How long will the latest deep sea search last?
The intervals are scheduled to begin on Tuesday, and the operation will last 55 days.
According to Scientific American, the company is sending a fleet of autonomous vehicles underwater for the search. Cars float tens of meters above the sea and map land down to a depth of 6,000 meters.
Here’s what we already know
The last flight was about 40 minutes from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off with “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero,” as the plane entered Vietnamese airspace and failed to engage its controllers.
Soon after, the plane’s transponder was disabled, so it was not easily tracked.
Military radar showed that the plane left its path to fly back to northern Malaysia and Penang Island, then exited the Andaman Sea off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The plane then turned south and all contact was lost.
Previous searches have not been very successful
The search continued on and off since the plane first disappeared, but in vain.
Shortly after its disappearance, Malaysia, Australia and China began an underwater search in a 120,000-square-kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean, based on data from the automatic communication between the Inmarsat satellite and the plane.
The search costs approx $183 million Cdn and was grounded after two years in January 2017, with no trace of the plane found.
So far, about 30 pieces of suspected aircraft debris have been collected, but only three pieces of the wing have been confirmed to be from MH370.
The report was found to be false, errors
A report published in 2018 said the Boeing 777’s controls may have been deliberately made to go off course, but investigators were unable to determine who was responsible.
Malaysian investigators removed the passengers and crew.
The report also issued recommendations to avoid a repeat incident after identifying mistakes made by air traffic control centers in Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City.
Investigators have stopped short of giving any conclusions about what happened to MH370, saying that depends on finding the debris.
Possible ideas
Theories range from hijacking to power failure, and more conspiracy theories have followed the tragedy since it happened.
Still, the questions increase considering there was no distress call, ransom demand, bad weather or evidence of technical failure.
