Renewed hope after Malaysia announces new attempt at locating vanished MH370

The Malaysian government announced on December 20 that it approved a proposal by American underwater exploration company Ocean Infinity to conduct its third search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 as all previous attempts, including one multi-nation search have concluded without success. The disappearance of MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew on March 8, 2014, remains one of aviation’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

The plane vanished less than an hour after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur, with its communications systems unexpectedly switched off. Despite its disappearance from radar, an article by The Conversation recalls, that recovered data suggests the aircraft continued to fly for hours.

Military radar readings showed the plane left its flight path to fly back over northern Malaysia and Penang island, and then out into the Andaman Sea towards the tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. From there, the aircraft ultimately turned south – out into the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean. 

Initial international efforts to locate MH370 were extensive and expensive, involving over 300 surveillance flights and advanced surface and submersible searches across more than 120,000 square kilometers of ocean by 2017. These searches employed sonar imaging and listening devices to detect signals from the plane's flight data recorders but yielded no results. Debris confirmed to belong to MH370 was later found on Reunion Island in 2015 and off Mozambique’s coast in 2016, consistent with ocean current patterns.

Ocean Infinity conducted a subsequent search in 2018, covering an additional 25,000 square kilometers but also failed to locate the wreckage. Over the years, experts and members of the public have contributed through advanced data analysis and drift modeling, attempting to trace the debris back to its origins. The analysis incorporated radar data, satellite pings, and a method known as Weak Signal Propagation (WSPR) to define potential search zones. However, these zones are vast and challenging to investigate due to the rugged and largely unmapped sea floor of the Southern Indian Ocean.

The seabed in the region is marked by steep submarine canyons and water depths reaching up to 7.4 kilometers, making sonar deployment complex and costly. Hydroacoustic methods, while promising, have so far covered only limited areas. The Southern Indian Ocean's remote location, far from shipping lanes, and extreme weather conditions further complicate search efforts.

Historical lessons from past aviation disasters, such as the 2009 Yemenia crash, have informed search strategies, emphasizing phased investigations to assess water depth, currents, and pre-existing site data. However, the efficacy of technology in such searches is limited; vegetation, sediment burial, and rocky seabed substrates can obscure findings, even in smaller, less challenging waterways.

Recent advancements in autonomous submersible vehicles offer hope for future searches. These vehicles can operate in deep waters, post-process raw data to distinguish between geological formations and potential wreckage, and enhance accuracy. Despite these innovations, the immense size and challenging conditions of the search area mean locating MH370 will remain a daunting task.

Ocean Infinity’s renewed efforts reflect the ongoing determination to solve the mystery of MH370. Their advanced technologies and refined strategies aim to overcome past limitations, but the vastness of the Southern Indian Ocean ensures that any future search will be as formidable as previous attempts.

By Nazrin Sadigova