Blow to MH370 search
HOPES of finding missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 have again been scotched with an Australian Transport Safety Bureau review declaring a proposed new site as “highly unlikely”.
But the file on the disappearance of the aircraft and its 239 passengers and crew is far from closed with thousands of kilometres remaining unsearched and another report up for analysis.
Late last year, British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey proposed a new impact location from an alternate flight path of the missing aircraft in a detailed technical report, raising prospects of the breakthrough families of those on board have prayed for since its March 2014 disappearance.
That hope only escalated when, in February this year, the ATSB announced it had partnered with Geoscience Australia to examine Mr Godfrey’s evidence, which largely relied on previously unreviewed “disturbances” of an object crossing ham radio operator signals.
In a joint statement, the ATSB and Geoscience Australia concluded it was highly unlikely “there is an aircraft debris field” within the area proposed, 1900km west of Perth. The area was previously searched by Texas-based marine search robotics company Ocean Infinity.
The review, in an 11-page public report, identified 11 objects below the Indian Ocean not analysed during the original search five years ago, however none were assessed to be from an aircraft.
“Eight of the objects were assessed as most likely geological features and, while three were identified as anthropogenic, i.e. not naturally occurring, none were determined to be associated with an aircraft,” ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
That said, the report concluded: “However, there remains a significant area of 12,100sq km within the 40NW (nautical mile) radius from the proposed crash location as well as 72.79sq km area of gaps … Review of the Ocean Infinity search data and additional data acquisition would be required in order to definitively ascertain if the aircraft rests in these areas.”
Geoscience Australia chief executive James Johnson said that, over a two-month period, a team of experts had reviewed a band of high-resolution sonar imagery spanning 4900sq km.
“This data allowed us to detect objects as small as 30cm by 30cm. If the aircraft was within the area we have reviewed, the sonar data would have shown a scatter field of highly reflective debris,” Dr Johnson said.
Mr Mitchell added: “The ATSB concluded its formal involvement the search for MH370 in 2017 but we acknowledge the importance of locating the aircraft to provide answers and closure to the families of those who lost loved ones and in the interests of aviation safety.”
BAE aerospace senior systems engineer Sergio Cavaiuolo, spending years of his private time and money, has sent out for peer review an updated, more technical report, suggesting the aircraft went west not south and hit the water closer to the Maldives.