Last week, a ship owned by the US maritime survey company Ocean Infinity reached the remote waters of the Indian Ocean, which is believed to be where MH370 crashed. Ocean Infinity then deployed three advanced robot Submarines at a depth of 4.8 km underwater to sweep the seabed using sonar waves.
The first search for MH370 took place more than a decade ago, a few months after MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China.
Scientists at satellite company Inmarsat later discovered that the plane had sent 7 automatic radio signals before disappearing permanently. Through data analysis, scientists have determined the route of the plane from Malaysia to the southern Indian Ocean and concluded that the wreckage is near the end point of the route.
Australia hired Fugro, a Dutch maritime survey company, to route the search vessel. Officials initially were confident that the plane would be found soon, even saying there was a 97% chance of success. But the missing plane was not in the search area of 119,000 square kilometres. Fugro increased the search area but failed. In 2017, the search for MH370 was canceled.
Hopes of finding MH370 were resumed when Ocean Infinity proposed to restart the search in 2018, only accepting payment if MH370 was found. Ocean Infinity uses newer technology: Underwater unmanned aerial vehicles (AUVs) to scan an area close to the area of the first search. But the effort was fruitless, and Ocean Infinity's search was called off in May 2018.
After the second search, many independent researchers continue to learn about the mystery of MH370. Some experts point out that various evidences point to MH370 falling near latitude 35 degrees South. The area has been searched twice, but the ocean floor is so rough that the plane may have crashed behind a rocky or mountain stream and has not been spotted in the previous two searches. If MH370 had been robbed, the pilots could have taken the plane further than the search area.
This is the area that Ocean Infinity is conducting a survey of in the third search for MH370. With a search area of only over 1/10 compared to previous searches, it is entirely possible that Ocean Infinity's seabed sweeping operation will be completed before the 11th anniversary of MH370's disappearance.
If the wreckage is found, Ocean Infinity's Armada 78 06 search vehicle may deploy ROV robots to lift the MH370 black box. The black box includes a flight data player that shows exactly how the plane entered the southern Indian Ocean and a cockpit recorder that could contain clues about what happened to the MH370 pilot.
If successful, a third search will find the plane's wreckage and black box, helping to solve the mystery of MH370. Otherwise, New York Magazine points out, the latest search will reject basic analysis of the seabed study and show authorities made a basic mistake when analyzing Inmarsat data. When every location in the ocean where the plane may have passed was cordoned off and searched, one or more assumptions were wrong.
