(Part:-2)
Initial search
A 315,000 km2 (122,000 sq mi) region around 2,600 km (1,400 nmi; 1,600 mi) southwest of Perth was the focus of the search operation from March 18 to 27, 2014. Known for its harsh environment, deep ocean floors, unfriendly seas, and powerful winds, the search location was dubbed “as close to nowhere as it’s possible to be” by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Analysis of the area’s satellite photography revealed two potential debris fields and a number of items of interest in pictures taken between March 16 and 26. Neither ships nor airplanes discovered any of these potential items.
On March 28, the search was moved 1,100 km (590 nmi; 680 mi) northeast of the prior location due to updated estimations of the radar track and the aircraft’s remaining fuel. This was followed by another change on April 4.
Since the batteries for the underwater locating beacons (ULBs, colloquially called “pingers”) that were connected to the aircraft’s flight recorders were anticipated to run out around April 7, an attempt was made to locate them between April 2 and April 17.
Joining the search were the Royal Navy’s HMS Echo, which had a hull-mounted hydrophone, China’s Haixun 01, which had a hand-held hydrophone, and the Australian naval cutter ADV Ocean Shield, which had a towed pinger locator (TPL). Given the size of the search region and the fact that a TPL can only search up to 130 km2 (50 sq mi) every day, operators believed the endeavor had little likelihood of success.
A number of acoustic detections that were near the frequency and rhythm of the sound produced by the flight recorders’ ULBs were made between April 4 and April 8. Analysis of the acoustic detections revealed that, while unlikely, the detections may have been caused by a damaged ULB.
Between April 14 and May 28, a sonar search of the bottom close to the detections was conducted, however Flight 370 was not found. It was disclosed in a March 2015 report that the ULB battery connected to Flight 370’s flight data recorder could not have been able to transmit signals as effectively as one with an unexpired battery since it may have expired in December 2012.
Underwater search
Details of the hunt’s next phase, which officials have dubbed the “underwater search” despite the earlier seabed sonar scan, were revealed in late June 2014. A “wide area search” along the “7th arc”—the location of Flight 370 at the time of its final connection with the satellite—was discovered via further refining of the investigation of the flight’s satellite communications. The southernmost portion of the wide area search was the primary search area.
At the end of a 9.7 km (6 mi) line, some of the underwater search equipment is most effective when dragged 200 m (650 ft) above the bottom. Prior to the start of the underwater phase, a bathymetric survey of the search area was required because the bathymetric data that was available for this location was of low resolution. The survey began in May and covered over 208,000 km2 (80,000 sq mi) of seabed before being halted on December 17, 2014, to allow the survey ship to be mobilized for the underwater search.
The governments of China, Australia, and Malaysia agreed to conduct a comprehensive search of 120,000 km2 (46,000 sq mi) of seafloor. In order to find and identify airplane wreckage, this search phase, which started on October 6, 2014, included three vessels outfitted with towed deep-water vehicles that employ side-scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounders, and video cameras. Between January and May 2015, a fourth vessel took part in the search, employing an AUV to look for locations that the other boats’ equipment was unable to reach.
The JACC claims that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was satisfied that the search area remained the most likely crash location after reviewing its drift estimates for debris from the aircraft after the flaperon was discovered on Réunion. The underwater search region was further supplemented by reverse drift modeling of the debris to ascertain its origin after 16 months, despite the fact that this approach is quite imprecise over extended periods of time. The three nations jointly declared on January 17, 2017, that the hunt for Flight 370 would be halted.
2018 search
American firm Ocean Infinity and Dutch firm Fugro proposed to pick up the hunt for the plane again on October 17, 2017. Ocean Infinity declared its intention to recommence the search in the 25,000 km2 (9,700 sq mi) region in January 2018. The Malaysian government authorized the search effort on the condition that money be given only if the wreckage was located. The Norwegian vessel Seabed Constructor was contracted by Ocean Infinity to conduct the search.
The vessel was reported to have reached the search zone on January 21 by the AIS tracking system in late January. The ship subsequently began to move toward 35.6°S 92.8°E, which the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s (CSIRO) drift research indicated was the most likely crash location.
The enlarged search area encompassed an additional 48,500 km2 (18,700 sq mi), while the original search area of “site 1” (where the search started) was 33,012 km2 (12,746 sq mi). Ocean Infinity reported in April that the search strategy had been expanded to include “site 4”, which is located farther northeast along the 7th arc.
By late May 2018, the ship had used eight AUVs to scan a total of more than 112,000 km2 (43,000 sq mi); all of “site 1” (including regions outside of the initial plan for “site 1”), “site 2,” and “site 3” had been searched. At “site 4” in May 2018, the last stage of the search was carried out “before the weather limits Ocean Infinity’s ability to continue working this year.” On May 23, 2018, Malaysia’s new transport minister Loke Siew Fook declared that the MH370 search would be completed by the end of the month.
On May 31, Ocean Infinity said that its agreement with the Malaysian government was finished, and on June 9, 2018, it was announced that the Ocean Infinity hunt was over. The Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project has received the ocean-floor mapping data gathered during the search, which will be included to the worldwide ocean floor map.
Following the fifth anniversary of the disappearance, the Malaysian government said in March 2019 that it would consider any “credible leads or specific proposals” for a new search. Ocean Infinity said it was prepared to start the search again on the same no-find, no-fee arrangement because it thought the expertise it had gathered from looking for the remains of the bulk carrier ship Stellar Daisy and the Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan would be helpful. The most likely site, according to Ocean Infinity, was still somewhere around the 7th arc surrounding the previously discovered area, which served as the basis for its 2018 search.
Potential 2024 search
Ocean Infinity pledged in March 2022 to resume its search in 2023 or 2024, subject to Malaysian government consent. To make sure nothing was overlooked, Ocean Infinity was going over data from its 2018 search in 2023. CEO Oliver Plunkett wanted to use Ocean Infinity’s new Armada vessel to continue the hunt in the middle of 2023. In order to continue the search, which Plunkett is supposedly in possession of, Malaysia’s transportation minister, Wee Ka Siong, asked Ocean Infinity for reliable fresh proof. Families of the victims are pushing for a second search after hearing reports of unidentified fresh evidence.
Days before the disappearance’s tenth anniversary, in March 2024, Malaysia said that it will speak with Australia about working with the Ocean Infinity crew on another trip.
Marine debris
The western Indian Ocean beaches had yielded 20 pieces of debris thought to be from 9M-MRO by October 2017. Of these, 18 were “identified as being very likely or almost certain to originate from MH370,” while the other two were “assessed as probably from the accident aircraft.”
The ATSB published two reports on August 16, 2017: a drift study of the recovered objects by the CSIRO that identified the crash area “with unprecedented precision and certainty” at 35.6°S 92.8°E, northeast of the main 120,000 km2 (46,000 sq mi) underwater search zone; and an analysis of satellite imagery taken on March 23, 2014, two weeks after MH370 vanished, that classified 12 objects in the ocean as “probably man-made.”
Flaperon
The right flaperon, a trailing edge control surface, was the first piece of debris to be conclusively confirmed as coming from Flight 370. About 4,000 kilometers (2,200 nautical miles; 2,500 miles) west of the undersea search area, on a beach at Saint-André, Réunion, an island in the western Indian Ocean, it was found in late July 2015.
The object was shipped from Réunion, a French overseas department, to Toulouse, where it was inspected by a French defense ministry laboratory and the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), France’s civil aviation accident investigation agency.
Malaysia dispatched its own investigators to Toulouse and Réunion. French authorities declared on September 3, 2015, that the flaperon was “with certainty” connected to Flight 370 by serial numbers discovered on its interior parts. A borescope was used to obtain these serial numbers.
Following the finding, French police searched the seas surrounding Réunion for more wreckage and discovered a damaged suitcase that was first connected to Flight 370, but authorities have subsequently questioned this connection. 16 months after an origin in the search region that was then underway off the west coast of Australia, the discovery’s position aligned with theories of debris dispersal. Additionally discovered in the same vicinity were an Indonesian cleaning product and a Chinese water bottle.
An airborne search for potential maritime debris was conducted by France in August 2015, including a 120 by 40 km (75 by 25 mi) region along the east coast of Réunion. Foot patrols were also scheduled to look for debris along the beaches.
Malaysia requested that officials in nearby states keep an eye out for any maritime debris that may have originated from an airplane. On August 14, it was reported that while some things had been discovered on land, no debris that may be linked to Flight 370 had been discovered at sea off Réunion. On August 17, the air and sea searches for debris came to an end.
Barnacles of the species Lepas anatifera, which only grow underwater and in certain patterns, coated the flaperon. In an effort to determine the flaperon’s route to Réunion, researchers have examined the barnacles on it.
Parts from the right stabiliser and right wing
An object with the stenciled marking “NO STEP” was discovered off the coast of Mozambique in late February 2016. According to preliminary photographic analysis, it could have originated from the leading edges of the wings or the horizontal stabiliser of the aircraft. Blaine Gibson discovered the piece on a sandbank in the Bazaruto Archipelago off the coast of Vilanculos in southern Mozambique.
It was around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) southwest of the flaperon’s discovery from July of last year. After being sent to Australia, specialists determined that the part was most likely a horizontal stabiliser panel from 9M-MRO.
Liam Lotter discovered a gray piece of wreckage on a beach in southern Mozambique in December 2015, but his family didn’t notify authorities until March 2016 after learning about Gibson’s discovery, which was some 300 kilometers (190 miles) away. For examination, the item was flown to Australia.
The item was almost definitely from 9M-MRO since it had the stenciled code 676EB, which identified it as a part of a Boeing 777 flap track fairing, and the font style matched Malaysia Airlines’ stencils.
The components’ possible origin from Flight 370 is further supported by the fact that the places where the debris were discovered match the CSIRO drift model.
Other debris
On the island of Réunion, further debris—possibly from the aircraft—was discovered on March 7, 2016. Malaysia’s deputy minister of transportation, Ab Aziz Kaprawi, said that “an unidentified grey item with a blue border” may be connected to Flight 370. In order to confirm if the wreckage was from the missing aircraft, teams from Malaysian and Australian officials coordinated the search in the South Indian Ocean.
On a beach close to Mossel Bay, South Africa, on March 21, 2016, South African archaeologist Neels Kruger discovered a gray fragment of wreckage with the unmistakable partial insignia of Rolls-Royce, the company that made the engines for the missing aircraft. The item could be an engine cowling, according to the Malaysian Ministry of Transportation.
In late March, another piece of potential debris was discovered on the Mauritius island of Rodrigues. It was thought to have originated from the aircraft’s cabin. Australian officials concluded on May 11, 2016, that the two pieces of debris were “almost certainly” from Flight 370.
Flap and further search
A piece of airplane wreckage was discovered on Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania, according to Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester on June 24, 2016. It was turned over to the police so that Malaysian specialists could identify where it came from.
Photographs of the object, which was thought to be an outboard flap from one of the aircraft’s wings, were made public by the Australian government on July 20. On September 15, Malaysia’s transport ministry verified that the wreckage was, in fact, from the missing aircraft.
Families of the victims said on November 21, 2016, that they will scour the island of Madagascar for debris in December. Five pieces of wreckage that were found on the Malagasy shore between December 2016 and August 2018 and that the family of the victims think were from MH370 were sent to Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke on November 30, 2018.
Goong Chen, a mathematics professor at Texas A&M University, has suggested that the plane could have impacted the water vertically since any other angle would have caused it to shatter into several pieces, which would have already been discovered.
Parts of Landing Gear
Following Tropical Storm Fernando in March 2017, a fisherman from Madagascar discovered a landing gear door from the aircraft.
To be continued in (PART-3)
