On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared from air traffic control radars over the South China Sea. 239 passengers disappeared with it, leaving their loved ones idle, and the whole world speechless. A plethora of theories exist on the subject: breakdown, meteorite, pilot suicide, hijacking… None has been proven, and the event remains unexplained – but perhaps not for long.
This November 5, 2024, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced in Parliament that his government was preparing to relaunch research, following what authorities describe as a “credible” proposal from Ocean Infinity, a transport company. marine exploration. It proposes to target an unexplored area in the southern Indian Ocean, off the coast of Western Australia. The Independent tells us more on this initiative, which could well elucidate one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.
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«Good night, Malaysian 370.» It was with these words that the captain concluded his last communication with air traffic control, one minute and forty-three seconds before the disappearance of the aircraft. Departing from Kuala Lumpur and never arriving in Beijing, the Boeing 777 would have – according to satellite data – crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.
From its disappearance until 2017, China, Malaysia and Australia carried out underwater searches in an area of 120,000 square kilometers, without success, despite an investment of 143 million dollars. In 2018, Ocean Infinity carried out a private “no solution, no cost” search with Malaysian authorization, covering 112,000 square kilometers in the north of the first targeted area, without success either. While more than thirty aircraft debris have been collected along the African coast and on islands in the Indian Ocean, only three wing fragments have been confirmed as coming from flight MH370.
A decade without answers
Ocean Infinity’s new proposal is based on a similar principle, meaning Malaysia will only incur costs if the wreck is located. The American company suggests concentrating its efforts in a new 15,000 square kilometer area off Western Australia, with a bonus of $70 million if successful. It should implement underwater mapping techniques in order to explore this unprecedented area, and according to the minister, the latest expert reports confirm the credibility of this initiative.
This comes as a Beijing court examines the compensation claims of more than forty families of Chinese passengers on board the plane. Choong Wah Lam, defense analyst at the University of Malaya, points out “given that most of the passengers on MH370 were Chinese, Malaysia should not hesitate to collaborate with Beijing”highlighting advanced means, such as Chinese research vessels which have regularly monitored the Indian Ocean since 2016.
In any case, if Ocean Infinity’s latest proposal comes to fruition, this new burst of investigation could finally provide answers to the families of the missing, and resolve a decade-old mystery.
