The Search For MH370 After 5 Years

Mar 11, 2019 | Malaysia, NEWS

Culture & Entertainment Desk

 

by Arvin Donguines
Father of one and a passionate writer who has been in the business for almost a decade.  Arvin is an experienced news reporter who has covered a plethora of topics ranging from mundane to extraordinary breaking news.  He previously wrote for Business Times China. Every word he types reflect his passion to create stories that are engaging and thought-provoking.  He hopes to put some positive energy into this crazy world we live in.

The on-and-off search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may once again be resumed, Malaysia’s transport minister announced earlier this March. The Malaysian government is open to new proposals from U.S Technology firm Ocean Infinity or other companies to resume the hunt for Flight 370.

The Unconfirmed Crash Site

According to reports, an independent aviation researcher has just recently claimed that he had found the debris somewhere in a jungle in Cambodia via satellite images. Daniel Boyer, the person in question, even went on to commission an expedition team and sent them to his proposed coordinates to verify his theories.

The unit, led by Zorba Parer, has yet to arrive on the location but the initial findings already indicate it to be a plane crash site. Whether or not it belongs to the Malaysian flight, Boyer and his team have yet to see it for themselves.

Boyer and company weren’t the first to propose the Cambodian plane crash site. In September 2018, Ian Wilson, a tech expert based off on UK said he might have spotted the area with the help of Google Maps.

Using tool-specific scale measuring techniques, Wilson deduced the object seen on the map to be the remains of the ill-fated plane.

Authorities couldn’t necessarily rule out the Google Maps sighting to be connected with MH370. Looking at the flight trajectory data of the plane, it’s plausible that this could really be its endpoint.

A Renewed Enthusiasm

Five years ago, the Boeing 777 jet disappeared out of thin air on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing along with its 239 passengers and crew on board. Malaysia, with the help of China and Australia launched what was considered to be one of the most expensive wreckage searches in the history of aviation.

In 2017, after what appears to be a fruitless effort to locate the downed aircraft, the three governing bodies decided to call off the underwater search which was previously carried out around the southern parts of the Indian Ocean.

Following this, a US-based exploration firm Ocean Infinity sought the Malaysian government’s backing to conduct their own search operation. This too ended in May 2018.

But just this Sunday, March 3, the office of Malaysia’s transport ministry, through its spokesperson, Anthony Loke, announced that the government is still making good on to its offer to reward any firms that could locate the remains of MH370.

The deal works under a “no cure, no fee” agreement. This means Malaysia will pay only after the plane was found.

The government, as Loke stated, would still be more than willing to look into these proposals and restart the search operation.

As such, it has been reported that Ocean Infinity will once again try its luck on the search. The company’s CEO, Oliver Punkett, said that they would start reviewing the data gathered from their first mission. It is also likely that they would be using their newly-developed technology which they first used to successfully locate a downed Argentinian vessel November last year.

The Mystery Behind Its Disappearance

Initial investigation stipulated the cause of the plane’s disappearance as something of an inside job. As proposed, someone from the plane had manually diverted the aircraft’s course.

Authorities couldn’t put blame on the two pilots to hijack the plane, neither to the passengers who were also cleared upon their boarding.

Nevertheless, it is important for investigators to get hold of the plane’s black boxes to confirm any of these assertions.

 

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