Nearly 12 years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, a new search begins this week — with breakthrough technology offering fresh hope of finding the wreckage.
The Boeing 777 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, including six Australian citizens and one New Zealand resident of Western Australia, when it dropped off the radar on March 8, 2014 in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
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The 55-day operation will be led by private robotics company Ocean Infinity, with Malaysia’s transport ministry saying the mission offers the highest chance yet of locating the lost plane.
The renewed effort will use advanced technology unavailable during earlier searches, according to former Qantas pilot and aircraft accident investigator Richard Woodward.
“Two key tools will be used to narrow down where the aircraft came down,” Woodward told Sunrise.
“One is the original satellite tracking data. The other is known as ‘whisper’ — where an aircraft passing through long radio waves creates a detectable disturbance.”
The whisper technology, combined with sophisticated data analysis, is expected to significantly reduce the search area compared with previous missions.
“There is confidence from using both systems together,” Woodward said.
“The area will still be large but far more targeted than before.”
A new search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 is to begin this week Credit: 7NEWSFormer Qantas pilot and aircraft accident investigator Richard Woodward spoke to Sunrise. Credit: Sunrise
If wreckage is found in waters about 3km deep, investigators hope the aircraft’s black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder — can be recovered.
“I’m reasonably hopeful parts of the fuselage will still be intact,” Woodward said.
“That increases the chances of locating the two so-called black boxes, which are actually orange.”
Despite being underwater for more than a decade, the flight data recorder could still yield crucial information about what happened to the aircraft, as the devices are designed to be both water-proof and impact-proof.
Families of the Australian victims have welcomed the renewed search, describing it as a long-awaited chance for answers after years of uncertainty.
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