Back in 2014, one of the biggest aviation mysteries happened when Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, disappeared while traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It carried 227 passengers and 12 crew members.
It was believed that the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean after satellite data showed it turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia’s transport minister announced on Wednesday that the search for Flight MH370 will continue after the country reached a “no find, no fee” agreement with the Texas-based ocean exploration firm.
The search activities are expected to be done in a new area in the southern Indian Ocean that is estimated to cover 5,790 square miles.
“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the MH370 passengers,” Minister Loke Siew Fook said in a statement.
The company conducting the search for the missing plane, Ocean Infinity, already had two unsuccessful attempt to get to the wreckage, with the recent one in 2018.
The company’s chief executive, Oliver Punkett, said Ocean Infinity has significantly improved their equipment since 2018 and used technology that helped them narrow the search area to the most likely site.
Peter Waring, a former Australian naval officer, dubbed the search technology as state-of-the-art. “What these new Ocean Infinity vessels represent, quite frankly, is as big a transition in maritime technology as the movement from sail to steam in the 1800s,” he told 60 Minutes.
“It represents a significant advancement in maritime technology.”
However, the technology has its limits in the open ocean, where waves reaching up to 20 meters have been recorded in the new search area.
Mirror reported that Ocean Infinity has already deployed a search vessel to the target zone 1,200 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia.
“There’s absolutely no shelter out there and there’s nowhere to hide,” Mr Waring warned.
“You’re six or seven days away from the nearest port, which is Perth.
“These are dangerous conditions, if something goes wrong, it will turn catastrophic very, very quickly.”
Craig Wallace, an electrical engineer and deep-sea diver, also spoke of the harsh conditions.
“The Indian Ocean that they’re working in is, is among the worst in the world,” he said.
“They’ve recorded wave heights of 20 meters, so 60 feet. It’s extreme conditions and there will be a lot of times where they simply cannot launch or recover the vehicle.”
The families of those killed in the plane crash are still looking for answers.
Flight MH370 carried passengers from more than a dozen of countries.
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