2021 is coming to an end, and Malaysia Airlines MH370, which has been missing for seven years, has new clues.
On November 30, a British aerospace engineer named Richard Godfrey issued a report saying that the crash location of the crashed passenger plane Malaysia Airlines MH370 had been found.
In his report, Godfrey mentioned the investigation of MH370's track by using GDTAAA, a system for global detection and tracking of aircraft anytime, anywhere, and WSPRnet, a digital radio communication tool designed for weak signal propagation. The results show that the crash site is located at 33.177 degrees south latitude and 95.300 degrees east longitude—this coordinate is located in the Indian Ocean waters 1993 kilometers west of Perth, Australia. between the volcanoes.
This time, the mystery of Malaysia Airlines is finally about to be revealed?
Memories of the crash that never go away
Back in time to March 8, 2014, at 0:41 am, Malaysia Airlines MH370 flew from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport. There were 227 passengers on board, including 154 Chinese passengers and 12 crew members. In addition to the 239 people, the plane was loaded with 31,517 pounds of cargo.
Captain Zaharie is 53 years old and has nearly 20,000 hours of flying experience. At 1:19:30 a.m., as the plane entered the skies over Vietnam, Captain Zaharie had a final communication with Kuala Lumpur's air traffic control. The captain said: "Malaysian MH370 is maintained at altitude 350." The air control center replied: "MH370 contact Ho Chi Minh Air Traffic Control 120.9, good night." The captain replied: "Good night. Malaysia Airlines MH370."
However, after saying good night, he was uneasy come. At 1:21 a.m., the signal of MH370 suddenly disappeared from the air traffic control radar in Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City at the same time. The air traffic control center immediately activated the auxiliary radar to capture the signal of MH370 through the aircraft transponder, but the transponder did not respond. The data transmitted by the transponder to the air traffic control center at the end stayed before 1:21, indicating that the aircraft was operating normally at the designated flight altitude, the fuel remaining was 91,500 pounds, and it could fly for about 6 hours.
As a result, the air traffic control center activated military radar to track MH370. Military radar showed that MH370 made a sudden 300-degree turn, then flew southwestward, and then turned right on Penang Island and continued to fly until it disappeared from radar monitoring.
Radar data also showed that MH370 quickly rose to 58,000 feet (the flight altitude was limited to 43,000 feet), then quickly dropped to 4,800 feet and flew over the Malay Peninsula and Perak Island before disappearing. Later, the police in Kota Bahru, Malaysia also said that at about 1:30 in the morning, they did receive four related reports, and many witnesses said they saw a plane flying at a low altitude.
However, MH370 just disappeared.
The wreckage of the crash likely sank 4,000 meters below sea level, between ravines and underwater volcanoes.
In 2014, the Australian reconnaissance ship "Fugro Equator" carried out an underwater investigation of Malaysia Airlines MH370
Search action yields little
After the plane lost contact, the Kuala Lumpur Air Rescue Coordination Center launched a search and rescue operation near the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. Then, according to eyewitness reports, continued searches in the Strait of Malacca, the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal found no trace of MH370.
In order to obtain a more precise search direction, the search and rescue team pinned their hopes on the satellite communication system. How it works is that the satellite communication system on the plane sends a signal to the satellite, which then feeds the signal back to Inmarsat on the ground. In the connected state, every hour, the aircraft will conduct a "handshake communication" with the satellite.
The search and rescue team found that before and after the disappearance of MH370, there were seven handshake communication records and two call records, but the crew did not answer. But based on these records, the search and rescue team calculated that the plane should have crashed in an arc in the southern Indian Ocean. On March 24 of that year, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib officially announced that MH370 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
As a result, a joint search and rescue team involving 27 countries including Australia, Malaysia, and China launched a large-scale search in the southern Indian Ocean. However, more than 30 aircraft and helicopters, as well as 60 ships, have found no clues or traces of MH370.
In June 2014, the search and rescue center decided to switch to underwater search. This search has been several years, and the search area has reached 120,000 square kilometers, and it has also found nothing. In the end, this mighty search and rescue operation ended in failure.
The wreckage is part of the Boeing 777 model of the United States, and the only one of the Boeing 777 aircraft that crashed is MH370.
In May 2016, the Mauritius Coast Guard released photos of the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines MH370
On January 29, 2015, 10 months after MH370 was announced missing, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia, on behalf of the Malaysian government, officially confirmed the plane crash and determined that all 239 people on board were killed.
However, things didn't end there. Six months later, an unexpected clue appeared: On the island of Reunion in the western Indian Ocean, someone found a piece of wreckage that looked like an airplane wing. Aviation experts identified the wreckage as part of a Boeing 777 aircraft, and among the Boeing 777 aircraft, the only crash was MH370.
Subsequently, experts from the Aviation Technology Center carefully checked the serial numbers and markings on the wings, and finally determined that the wreckage belonged to MH370.
After the clues were discovered, Australia joined China and Malaysia to start an underwater search and salvage drifting parts, and finally found 32 pieces of aircraft wreckage. After research and comparative analysis, only 3 pieces can be "determined" to be from MH370, the rest is uncertain. The point is, even if the pieces are found, no one knows exactly where MH370 is.
On January 17, 2017, the transport ministers of Malaysia, Australia and China jointly issued a statement announcing that the search operation was temporarily suspended. This search and rescue effort, which lasted for many years and failed, has become the most expensive air disaster search and rescue in aviation history.
On January 10, 2018, a U.S. exploration company called Ocean Infinity expressed to the Malaysian government that it was willing to participate in the search for MH370. So from January 17, the company sent eight unmanned underwater vehicles to conduct a simultaneous search, covering nearly 50,000 square miles. The unmanned vehicle is made of titanium metal, can scan the seabed through sonar sensors, and can also dive to a depth of 5,000 meters, with a single battery life of 60 hours, which can be said to be very advanced. However, months later, the company announced it was abandoning the search.
In March 2019, the Malaysian government said it would still consider restarting the search if there were any credible clues or specific recommendations.
The mystery will be revealed in 2022?
In the seven years since the disappearance of MH370, every relevant news and clue has touched the hearts of countless people. To this day, there is still a group of people who have never given up looking for it. Richard Godfrey is one of them.
He said in the report that the predicted location of MH370 is consistent with the ocean drift analysis of 33 pieces of debris that may have come from the missing plane, and if the area covered by his report is thoroughly searched, the remains of MH370 can be found in the second half of 2022.
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