Although the search for MH370 has resumed, experts on air crashes and sea robots warn that many key questions surrounding Malaysia Airlines' missing flight nearly 12 years ago may still be unanswered.
The search for the body of the Boeing 777 is expected to begin on December 30, 2025, nearly 12 years after the plane disappeared in the Indian Ocean with 239 people.
The Malaysian Ministry of Transport said that Ocean Infinity will restart the search on the seabed, on an area of about 15,000 km2 for 55 days, starting from December 30. This search for MH370 is a continuation of the search for MH370, which was suspended in April due to bad weather.
They have technology, they have determination, and I believe they will continue until they find the plane. For example, engines, which are the size of a small bus, are likely to have been separated when the plane landed or fell into the sea. With today's modern technology, the unmanned aerial vehicles and sonar they use can be completely detected," said Byron Bailey, a former pilot of the Royal Australian Air Force and civil airline.
However, many experts call for caution. MH370 is located in a completely unclear area. It is an extremely vast ocean," said Edward Cassano, co-founder and CEO of marine robotics company Pelagic Research Services.
Cassano also warned that the depth and terrain of the seabed could leave the wreckage missing. If it falls into an area with many underground mountains and canyons under the seabed, even though it is very large, the plane can still easily fall into a deep canyon next to an underground mountain, he said.
In the case of finding MH370, the top priority is to recover the plane's 2 black boxes, according to former air accident investigator Steven Green. He also noted that salvaging many other parts of the missing plane may not be feasible, depending on the depth of the seabed.
A depository of debris on land is very, very dangerous, and underwater, the risk level increases many times, said Mr. Green.
If the black boxes of MH370 are found and the data remains intact, investigators can collect a lot of information, especially from digital flight data recorders, which store parameters such as altitude, speed and flight direction of the plane.
A key moment of interest is MH370's sudden turn westward very early in the journey lasting about 7 hours. Malaysia's 495-page report on the MH370 investigation determined that the move was "most likely due to manual control".
They are flying to Beijing, everything is on schedule. If the crew is unable to control, the plane will usually continue flying in the original direction. Why are they changing direction, in my opinion, is the most interesting and important question at the moment," he said.
This particular detail has raised many theories, from the MH370 captain's intentional committing a mass suicide to the possibility of the plane being hacked.
However, Mr. Green believes that even if the cabin recording device of MH370 is found, limiting data storage to just 2 hours could make the truth about the mystery of MH370 unanswered.
