Some 10 years after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 first went missing aviation experts still have no idea how it happened. In 2014 the plane, carrying 239 people from 15 countries, was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it veered off course over the Malay Peninsula.
The Boeing 777 is thought to have flown south for several hours after it lost radar contact, with experts strongly believing it crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean after running out of fuel.
The plane’s transponder gave its last position as being directly in the middle of the Malay Peninsula after it turned west deviating well away from the north-easterly direction it was supposed to be flying in.
It would have had to have flown south for a significant period of time in order to have evaded radar detection with satellite pings detected in many locations across the world which were then used to form search corridors.
If the plane travelled south as suggested it is believed it would have crashed in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Singapore and below Sri Lanka.
The reason for the plane’s disappearance is now considered one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.
A Malaysian government report released in 2018 gave no conclusive answers as to what had happened, which devastated families hoping for closure.
Kok Soo Chon, the head of the safety investigation team, said the available evidence “irresistibly point” to “unlawful interference”, however there is no evidence as to who interfered or why.
Following that report an extensive investigation was launched to examine all passengers and crew, the report looked into pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah and first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, looking at their financial statuses, health, tone of voice on the radio and their gait as they walked to work that day.
Researchers found no abnormalities, but despite this a number of experts have suggested the incident was caused by a rogue pilot in events similar to Germanwings Flight 9525, which was crashed into the French Alps on purpose by pilot Andreas Lubitz killing himself and 149 others.
But last week aviation experts suggested a new investigation could be launched.
Despite never finding a full plane, investigators found about 20 pieces of debris along the coasts of the African mainland and on the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues.
Then in summer 2015 a flapron thought to be from the plane washed up on a beach in Reunion, while another piece of debris, a triangular piece of fiberglass composite and aluminum with the words “No Step” written on it, was found on the Mozambique coast in February 2016.
In September 2016, the Australian government confirmed a wing flap with identification numbers matching Flight MH370 had washed up on a Tanzanian island.
Now Malaysian government officials have confirmed they are ready to launch a new search operation being approached by Ocean Infinity, which conducted early investigations.
Oliver Plunkett, CEO of Ocean Infinity, said: “This search is arguably the most challenging, and indeed pertinent one out there.
“We’ve been working with many experts, some outside of Ocean Infinity, to continue analyzing the data in the hope of narrowing the search area down to one in which success becomes potentially achievable.”
