MH370 Weeks Away From Biggest Mystery Unsolved Since Amelia Earhart
The man leading the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is showing the strain after almost two years of fruitless toil. Martin Dolan, head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said he struggles to sleep at times, gnawed by thoughts that wreckage from the Boeing Co. 777 may have slipped through the sonar net scanning 120,000 sq km of the southern Indian Ocean.
MH370 is weeks away from becoming aviation’s biggest unsolved mystery since Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937. Of the 3 million components in the jet, only one has turned up – a barnacle-encrusted wing flap – on Reunion Island, thousands of kilometres from the search. There have been no traces of the 239 people on board, their luggage or even the life jackets that were supposed to float.
Some of the world’s most experienced search-and-rescue experts increasingly accept that the A$180 million (RM538 million) search may fail. Without fresh clues, the hunt should end about June, when four ships are due to finish combing the seas off western Australia, Dolan said.
Some of the world’s most experienced search-and-rescue experts increasingly accept that the A$180 million (RM538 million) search may fail. Without fresh clues, the hunt should end about June, when four ships are due to finish combing the seas off western Australia, Dolan said.
The waters in the search area are up to 6km deep and peppered with trenches and submerged peaks. Last month, a towed sonar vehicle collided with a volcano rising 2,200m from the seabed. The device was severed and sank to the bottom.
Vessels still have to scan about 35,000 sq km – an area bigger than Belgium. The newest reinforcement is a Chinese ship with high-definition sonar. The Dong Hai Jiu 101 will focus on areas of the ocean floor that are difficult to scan with conventional sonar when it arrives this month, Dolan said.
But even the most comprehensive search won’t satisfy the victims’ families if it fails.
“We are going to try as hard as we can to lobby for the search to continue beyond June,” said Grace Subathirai Nathan, 28, whose mother was a passenger. “I need an answer.”
The extent of human intervention in the silent disaster isn’t known. The last recorded words from MH370’s pilots, at 1:19 am on March 8, were: “Good night Malaysian Three Seven Zero.” In a world where a US$100 smartphone can be tracked for free, the US$250 million jet vanished.
Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak has said the plane was deliberately steered off course, and the homes of the pilot and co-pilot were searched. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation also analysed the pilot’s personal flight simulator to no avail.
Ships scanning the seafloor already collected about 20PB of imaging data. That’s enough to house the entire digital collection of the US Library of Congress – several times over.
Even after acknowledging the difficulties of searching a massive, remote and deep area of the ocean, Dolan said he was confident the plane will be found. “Every morning I wake up and check what’s going on, and I hope that today’s going to be the day,” he said. – Bloomberg, February 16, 2016.
Cover photo: REUTERS/Samsul Said