MH370’s final resting place lies west of Perth, say amateur investigators

KUALA LUMPUR: Two amateur investigators have been quoted saying they are convinced that the wreckage of the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 lies west of Perth, Australia.

British news site BBC Future quoted Vincent Lyne, a former researcher from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania, and Richard Godfrey, a retired British aerospace engineer and creator of the site ‘The Search for MH370’, saying all it takes to find the wreckage is one more search in the right location.

“The precise location of MH370 is in a very deep 6,000-metre hole about 1,500km west of Perth and along the longitude of Penang. That location reconciles all evidence,” Lyne was quoted saying.

Meanwhile, Godfrey’s method which involved analysing disruption to Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) – a computer programme used in communications between amateur radio operators – recorded on the night of the plane’s disappearance and other data, also pointed to the wreckage being approximately 1,500km west of Perth.

“The MH370 crash location, defined by the WSPR technology, is within a circle with a radius of 30 kilometres and centred at 29.128°S 99.934°E. This area is 1,560km west of Perth. It will only take one more search of this area and we will find MH370,” he said.

Lyne posited that MH370 would be discovered west of Perth along the longitude of Penang, citing the pilot’s emotional connection to his hometown and evidence from the plane’s detour to Penang before its disappearance.

He believed the precise location and flight track of MH370 were decoded from the pilot’s simulator data.

Additionally, Lyne pointed to anomalies in satellite imagery on March 8, 2014, including a 300km cloud trail, as further supporting his theory.

“There is only one person on that plane who could have masterminded that secret flight path and landing location that had personal significance in relation to being along the Penang longitude,” he said.

Lyne asserted that the primary obstacle to locating MH370 is the reluctance of officials to consider new theories or locations beyond the 7th arc.

He argued that the 7th arc is an incorrect search area, as it assumes the aircra immediately experienced a high-speed descent upon running out of fuel, yet lacks any debris evidence to support this notion.

“There is no competent international science review group, which I’ve called to be established, to objectively assess all evidence and to recommend a new search strategy. Instead, (the) new search plan is exclusively extending out from the 7th arc or within a small poorly surveyed area, which one group claims is hiding MH370,” he reportedly added.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 aircra carrying 239 people, disappeared from radar screens 10 years ago while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has never been found and the operation was suspended in January 2017.