VANISHING POINT
I’m an MH370 expert – I know just one more search with new tech will find vanished plane & solve mystery 10 years on
Watch expert Richard Godfrey explain how MH370 could finally be found
AN MH370 expert believes it would take "one final search" to find the missing jet and put the world's biggest aviation mystery to rest ten years on.
Retired British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey has long suggested radio frequency technology could hold the answers to the doomed flight's final resting place.
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But now Richard's theory is being put to the test by experts at Liverpool University who will look at how aircraft could be tracked using "weak signal propagation reporter" or WSPR technology.
On March 8th nearly ten years ago, the Malaysian Airlines flight with 239 passengers bound for Beijing disappeared from flight radar over the South China Sea and has never been found.
The last known communication with the Boeing 777 jet was a message to air traffic control around 38 minutes into its flight at around 1.20am.
Moving from Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh airspace, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was heard saying: "Goodnight. Malaysian three seven zero."
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But the captain never made contact with Ho Chi Minh airspace - and moments later, the plane vanished from radar.
The official narrative suggests the plane made a bizarre U-turn, flying across Malaysia, turning northwest at Penang Island, and across the Andaman Sea after being tracked by military radar.
But data from an Inmarsat satellite communications network later revealed that the plane flew till at least 8.19am, flying south into the Southern Indian Ocean.
On March 24, the Malaysian government concluded "Flight MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean".
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Yet several searches have been unsuccessful in recovering the wreckage.
I'm convinced it will only take one more search and we will find MH370
Richard Godfrey
Refusing to give up, retired aerospace engineer Richard has made it his life's work to uncover what happened to flight MH370 and all those onboard.
Missing MH370 flight could have 'easily been sabotaged from the inside' in a plot to crash the plane, ex-pilot says
The expert believes that clues can be found within the WSPR database of radio signals which is designed to test the strength of radio frequencies around the world.
With the Malaysian Government now ready to back a fresh MH370 investigation if new evidence emerges and experts set to test the creditability of WSPR technology - it's thought Richard's theory could pave the way for another search.
Speaking in a new BBC documentary, Why Planes Vanish: The Hunt for MH370, Richard believes one last dive for the jet could be successful.
He said: "I think we have not found MH370 simply because we did not look wide enough from the 7th arc.
"I'm convinced it will only take one more search and we will find MH370."
WSPR TECHNOLOGY
Every two minutes, transmitters around the world send thousands of low-power radio pulses.
It's thought that when a plane crosses through these "trip wires" the disturbance is recorded in the database and the aircraft's flight path can be tracked.
Richard has pinpointed 130 disturbances in the WSPR signals over the Southern Indian Ocean on the night of March 8th.
He believes these are evidence of MH370’s final flight path.
The disturbances terminate at a point just outside of the 7th arc in an area not covered by any underwater search to date.
Now a professor at the University of Liverpool, who helped design a system to track the spread of Covid-19 in the UK, will analyse the effect that thousands of aircraft have on the profile of low-power radio signals.
Simon Maskell, a Professor of Autonomous Systems told the BBC: "It's completely conceivable that WSPR works.
"It's not yet proven. Proving whether WSPR works is what we're trying to do now.
"What we want to do is to use all the data globally from all the airplanes that are flying, in a day, and that will give us several times as much data as Richard has previously been able to consider.
The system will attempt to track every plane in the sky over a 24-hour period. If it achieves a high success rate, it will be compelling evidence that WSPR can be used to detect aircraft.
“I'm hopeful we should know whether WSPR provides information pertinent to MH370 in the next six months or so.
"If WSPR works then we'll know where MH370 was when it hit the ocean and therefore where it is now, and then we can go and get it. And that would be a great day."
BID FOR NEW SEARCH
Richard Godfrey previously cast doubt on Malaysia's commitment to expose the cause of MH370's demise.
But on Monday the country's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that if compelling evidence emerged it would reopen an investigation.
Speaking at a press conference in Melbourne he revealed: "We have taken the position that if there is a compelling case, evidence that it needs to be re-opened, we’re certainly happy to reopen.
"Whatever needs to be done must be done."
On Sunday, Malaysia’s transport minister Anthony Loke said he was also in talks with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity.
He said: " We are waiting for Ocean Infinity to provide suitable dates, and I will meet them anytime that they are ready to come to Malaysia."
The company's CEO, Oliver Plunkett, later confirmed it wanted to continue its hunt for the missing jet after a failed attempt in 2018.
In a statement, Oliver said: "We remain interested in returning to the search for MH370 and are actively engaged in trying to make this happen.
"We now feel in a position to be able to return to the search for missing aircraft MH370 and have submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government.
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“We hope to get back to the search soon.”
Why Planes Vanish: The Hunt for MH370 airs Wednesday 6th March at 8pm on BBC One and is available on iPlayer.
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