appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

The Conversation

It has been 10 years since Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014. To this day, it remains one of the biggest aviation mysteries globally.
It’s unthinkable that a modern Boeing 777-200ER aircraft with 239 people on board can simply vanish without any explanation. Yet multiple searches in the past decade have still not yielded the main wreckage or the bodies of the victims.
At a remembrance event held earlier this week, the Malaysian transport minister announced a renewed push for another search.
If approved by the Malaysian government, the survey will be conducted by the United States-based seabed-exploration firm Ocean Infinity, whose efforts were unsuccessful in 2018.

What happened to MH370?
The flight was scheduled to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft within 60 minutes of the plane taking off, as it flew over the South China Sea.
Subsequently, it was tracked by military radar crossing the Malay Peninsula and was last located by radar over the Andaman Sea in the northeastern Indian Ocean.
Later, automated satellite communications between the aircraft and British firm Inmarsat’s telecommunications satellite indicated that the plane ended up in the southeast Indian Ocean along the seventh arc (referring to a series of coordinates).
This became the basis for defining the initial search areas by the Australian Air Transport Safety Bureau. Initial air searches were conducted in the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea.
To date, we still don’t know what caused the aircraft’s change of course and disappearance.

What has been found so far?
On March 18, 2014, 10 days after the disappearance of MH370, a search in the southern Indian Ocean was led by Australia, with the participation of aircraft from several countries. This search continued until April 28 and covered an area of 4,500,000 sq km of ocean. No debris was found.
Two underwater searches of the Indian Ocean, 2,800km off the coast of Western Australia, have also failed to find any evidence of the main crash site.
The initial seabed search, led by Australia, covered 120,000 sq km and extended 50 nautical miles across the seventh arc. It took 1,046 days and was suspended on January 17, 2017.
A second search by Ocean Infinity in 2018 covered over 112,000 sq km. It was completed in just over three months but also did not locate the wreckage.

What about debris?
While the main crash site has still not been found, several pieces of debris have washed up in the years since the flight’s disappearance.
In June 2015, officials from the Australian Air Transport Safety Bureau determined that debris from the plane might arrive in Sumatra, contrary to the ocean currents in the region.
The strongest current in the Indian Ocean is the South Equatorial Current. It flows east to west between northern Australia and Madagascar, and debris would be able to cross it.
Indeed, on July 30, 2015 a large piece of debris – a flaperon (moving part of a plane wing) – washed up on Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean. It was later confirmed to belong to MH370.
Twelve months earlier, using an oceanographic drift model, our University of Western Australia (UWA) modelling team had predicted that any debris originating from the seventh arc would end up in the western Indian Ocean.

In subsequent months, additional aircraft debris was found in the western Indian Ocean in Mauritius, Tanzania, Rodrigues, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa.
The UWA drift analysis accurately predicted where floating debris from MH370 would beach in the western Indian Ocean. It also guided American adventurer Blaine Gibson and others to directly recover several dozen pieces of debris, three of which have been confirmed to be from MH370, while several others are deemed likely.
To date, these debris finds in the western Indian Ocean are the only physical evidence found related to MH370.
It is also independent verification that the crash occurred close to the seventh arc, as any debris would initially flow northwards and then to the west, transported by the prevailing ocean currents. These results are consistent with other drift studies undertaken by independent researchers globally.

Why a new search for MH370 now?
Unfortunately, the ocean is a chaotic place, and even oceanographic drift models cannot pinpoint the exact location of the crash site.
The proposed new search by Ocean Infinity has significantly narrowed down the target area to within latitudes 36°S and 33°S. This is around 50km to the south of the locations where UWA modelling indicated the release of debris along the seventh arc. If the search does not locate the wreckage, it could be extended north.
Since the initial underwater searches, technology has tremendously improved. Ocean Infinity is using a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles with improved resolution. The proposed search will also use remotely controlled surface vessels.


In the area where the search is to take place, the ocean is around 4,000 metres deep. The water temperatures are 1–2 degrees Celsius (33.8–35.6 degrees Fahrenheit), with low currents. This means that even after 10 years, the debris field would be relatively intact.
Therefore, there is a high probability that the wreckage can still be found. If a future search is successful, this would bring closure not just to the families of those who perished, but also the thousands of people who have been involved in the search efforts.
Charitha Pattiaratchi is Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the University of Western Australia. This article was first published by The Conversation.




Malaysia’s Loke resigns as transport minister following Najib’s house arrest approval

Malaysia deploys air force aircraft for cloud seeding to combat worsening haze

Why the Global South keeps its doors wide open to Russia

Malaysia’s Najib Razak allowed to serve the rest of his term under house arrest

Malaysia

Can Malaysia’s MH370 aircraft still be found, 10 years after it disappeared?

A family member of passengers and crew on board the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 writes on a memorial wall during a remembrance event marking the 10th anniversary of its disappearance in Selangor, Malaysia, on March 3. Photo: EPA-EFE

Two Malaysian children stand in front of a message board with well wishes on it to people involved with the missing MH370, in Sepang, Malaysia, on March 16, 2014. Photo: AP

Debris from MH370 is displayed during a Day of Remembrance event in Kuala Lumpur on March 3, 2019. Photo: AP

A photo taken on December 23, 2015 shows part of the aircraft engine cowling from MH370, stencilled with the Rolls-Royce logo, which was found at Mossel Bay, South Africa. Photo: Australian Transport Safety Bureau/ via AFP

A relative of a passenger on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries outside an office on the outskirts of Beijing on August 7, 2015. Photo: AFP

‘MH370 is not history’: 10 years on, Malaysia seeks to revive Ocean Infinity’s jet search

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke, centre, joins the relatives of missing MH370 passengers in a candlelight vigil on March 3. Photo: Hadi Azmi

A right outboard flap of a Boeing 777 jet, found in 2016 in Tanzania, that came from Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370. Photo: Hadi Azmi

A person looks at the names of passengers and crew on doomed flight MH370, during a memorial in Malaysia on March 3. Photo: Hadi Azmi

Malaysian Nicolette Gomes, 39, daughter of MH370’s in-flight supervisor Patrick Gomes. Photo: Hadi Azmi

A decade after MH370, will the world finally heed Malaysia’s call for real-time tracking of planes?

Relatives of missing MH370 passengers at a remembrance ceremony in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on March 7, 2020, to mark the sixth anniversary of the plane’s disappearance. The aircraft went missing on March 8, 2014. Photo: EPA-EFE

A man whose mother was on the missing MH370 wears a cap which reads “Pray for Blessing MH370” in Beijing in November 2023. Photo: AP

A policeman and a gendarme standing next to a piece of debris later identified as from the missing MH370, found on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, in July 2015. Photo: AFP

Malaysia Airlines planes at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, in October 2020. Airlines were severely battered by strict movement curbs and travel bans during the Covid-19 years. Photo: Reuters

Ocean Infinity crew on board the “Seabed Constructor” multipurpose offshore vessel in the southern Indian Ocean in January 2018 during a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photo: EPA-EFE/Ocean Infinity 

Family members hold signs about the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that went missing in 2014, in Beijing, China, in November 2023. Photo: Reuters

A decade after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, planes still at risk of vanishing off the map

The arrival board at the International Airport in Beijing, China, shows a Malaysian airliner delayed on March 8, 2014. Photo: AP

Relatives of missing MH370 passengers look at the name list during the remembrance ceremony to mark the sixth anniversary of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane’s disappearance, in Putrajaya, Malaysia on March 7, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

A still from MH370: The Plane That Disappeared. Photo: Netflix

A relative of a Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 passenger, holds a banner reading ‘Malaysia Airlines MH370 case’ in Chinese after a compensation claim hearing in Beijing, China, in November 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

Malaysia seeks to revive MH370 plane search, the Nepalis paid to fight for Russia: 6 weekend reads you may have missed

Singapore couple Corinne Chow and Ryan Tan posted a video on TikTok showing their viewers what a day in their life as a DINK couple looks like. Photo: Handout

Khim Bahadur Thapa in a Russian army uniform at an unidentified location. Photo: Khim Bahadur Thapa

A version of the Disney-designed logo which adorned the planes of the Flying Tigers, volunteer American and British fighter pilots who took to the skies to protect Free China from the Japanese during World War II. Photo: EJ Hersom/US Department of Defense

Crowds galore on a Saturday at Tai Po Hui Cooked Food Centre, Tai Po, on January 13, 2024. Photo: Sam Evans

An imperial throne in the Wang Shu Room, at the Humboldt Forum, in Berlin, Germany. Photo: David von Becker

This Week in Asia

Opinion

Previous searches in the Indian Ocean did not locate any wreckage, although several pieces of debris have washed up over the years
With the debris field likely to remain intact even after 10 years, and a narrower search area and improved technology, there is a high chance the wreckage can still be found


Previous searches in the Indian Ocean did not locate any wreckage, although several pieces of debris have washed up over the years.


Aviation

Malaysia Airlines flight 370

Boeing

Madagascar

Mauritius

Mozambique

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)
