01 September 2023 , 22:14
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The location of a missing Malaysia Airlines flight which disappeared after contact was lost in 2014 may have finally be revealed.
It is believed flight MH370 - which was carrying 239 passengers - could be found about 1,560km west of Perth, Australia, thanks to amateur radio technology. Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, or WSPR was used by researchers Richard Godfrey, Dr Hannes Coetzee and Professor Simon Maskell to track the Boeing 777's flight path for six hours after contact was lost.
In a new 229-page report, the team say: "This technology has been developed over the past three years and the results represent credible new evidence. It aligns with analyses by Boeing ... and drift analyses by University of Western Australia of debris recovered around the Indian Ocean."
A new report reveals the estimated flight path and final resting place of the missing flight (NCA NEWSWIRE)They were able to determine 125 points where the plane flew, with its path coinciding with Boeing data, Inmarsat satellites and drift analysis. It appeared to take a strange zig-zag pattern prior to crashing, reports the Daily Mail. The plane was flying from Kuala Lumpur Airport to Beijing on March 8, 2014, when contact was lost close to Phuket Island in the Strait of Malacca. It is believed to have turned round and headed into the Indian Ocean where it crashed after about 7.5 hours, having run out of fuel.
A crew searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 (Getty Images)There are theories pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah crashed the plane on purpose or it was hijacked. However, the odd path shown maybe a glitch in the WSPR measurements. Prior to the aircraft changing directions and vanishing, authorities believed they heard either the pilot or co-pilot say: "Good night Malaysian three seven zero."
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The final resting place is slightly north of previous estimates. The researchers said: "Together with [the data], a comprehensive picture of the final hours of flight MH370 can be collated. Flight MH370 was diverted into the Indian Ocean where it crashed of fuel exhaustion... at some point after the last signal after midnight. At the time of writing, MH370 still has not been found despite extensive surface and underwater searches.
A new search expedition is set to be launched based on the findings (NCA NEWSWIRE)About 10 million commercial passengers fly every day and the safety of the airline industry relies on finding the cause of every accident." The proposed crash site spans 130km by 89km, with just half of the area searched. Aviation expert Geoff Thomas told The Today Show that a new search will be conducted based on the findings. He said: "There is a very high level of confidence. [The report] has been four years in the making, being reviewed over and over again. They [the researchers] are certain that they have located where this aircraft is."