Man Who Thinks He's Solved MH370 Mystery Worked On It For Seven Years

A man who reckons he's solved the MH370 mystery said he spent seven years working eight hours a day trying to crack it.

It's been almost eight years since the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - which was carrying 239 people - vanished into thin air as it travelled from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.  

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Despite extensive search efforts ever since, the wreckage of the plane has never been found.  

However, British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey thinks he may know where the crash site is.

After working on the mystery meticulously for years and using revolutionary tracking technology he has concluded the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean 1,993km west of Perth, and now lies 4,000m below the surface.

Speaking to The Sun, the 71-year-old said: "I am very hopeful Flight MH370 will be found. I understand why it hasn’t been found until now.

"It is very difficult underwater terrain, there are canyons and cliff faces and even volcanoes down there on the seafloor.

"At 4,000m deep it’s very dark and very cold, intense pressure, but with the right equipment it can be found."

Richard - who lives in Germany - was interested in solving the mystery after narrowly avoiding travelling on another downed flight.

In May 2009 he was booked on to Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, but he was asked to stay on in South America on business and delayed his departure date by two weeks.

The flight disappeared with 288 people on board and it was only found in the Atlantic two years later.

He said: "When I saw that Air France 447 had crashed in the middle of the Atlantic I got involved in reading up on that story and followed the underwater search for the wreckage.

"I dodged death. There but for the grace of God go I.

"When I saw what happened with MH370 I saw parallels and had to look into it."

He added: "I lost my sister in a car accident years ago. I could fly the body home. I could have closure."

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Godfrey said he has been able to track the plane's final movements using a system called Weak Signal Propagation. 

Speaking to 7 News, he described the technology as a ‘bunch of tripwires that work in every direction over the horizon to the other side of the globe’, and as aircraft fly through these so-called tripwires, the signal is disrupted.  

Godfrey said he used this new method along with data from the satellite communications system onboard MH370 to track the flight. 

And despite all the hours he's put in trying to solve the mystery, he said his marriage and social life are still in good shape.

He said: "I am still putting the hours in. I get to my desk normally at 8am, work for eight hours, fold up the laptop and go down the pub with my mates, otherwise I think it would drive me crazy.

"I am married and I’m not divorced as a result of this. I think my wife is sympathetic, but she might think I’m a bit obsessive and obstinate to carry on so long. I want to get answers and solve this mystery."

Topics: News

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey