Experts call for fresh search of MH370 with new technology
Published on: Monday, December 25, 2023
By: FMT
MAS flight MH370, with 239 people on board, vanished from radar screens about two hours after it departed from KLIA en route to Beijing on March 8, 2014. (AFP pic)
PETALING JAYA: Experts have called for a new search for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 plane, based on new revelations on the flight.
In a lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society in September, aerospace expert Jean-Luc Marchand and pilot Patrick Blelly urged the Australian transport safety authority, the Malaysian government as well as marine exploration company Ocean Infinity to begin a new search.
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Ocean Infinity had indicated last year that it was keen on restarting a search, having canvassed expansive areas of the Indian Ocean on a “no find, no fee” basis.
The duo suggested that the “swift” search might serve as an excellent testing opportunity for the company’s latest unmanned underwater search technology.
Marchand said that the proposed new search area for MH370 could be canvassed in just 10 days in an open call for help.
“It could be a quick thing. Until the wreckage of MH370 is found, nobody knows (what happened). But, this is a plausible trajectory,” Marchand said, according to Australian news site news.com.au.
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The news site quoted the pair as saying the new search area was based on the belief the plane was “purposefully hijacked and downed in the deep ocean”.
Marchand said the hijacking was likely carried out by an experienced pilot, describing it as an “atrocious one-way journey”.
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“The cabin was depressurised… and it was a soft control ditching to produce minimal debris. It was performed not to be trapped or found. The guy knew that if search and rescue were triggered, it would be on the flight path.”
The duo added that the sudden change in direction occurred when the plane was in ‘no man’s land’ involving Thai, Indonesian, Indian and Malaysian airspace.
FMT has reached out to the transport ministry for comment.
In March, on the ninth anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, transport minister Loke Siew Fook said he will not summarily close the book on the MAS flight MH370 tragedy.
On the evening of March 8, 2014, the MAS aircraft with 239 people on board left KLIA for Beijing but vanished from radar screens two hours after departure.
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