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Aviation Expert Believes New Technology Could Help Find MH370 Wreckage

Aviation Expert Believes New Technology Could Help Find MH370 Wreckage

It's been more than seven years since the flight disappeared without a trace

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

An aviation expert believes new technology could be used to help find the missing flight MH370.

It's been seven years since the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which was carrying 239 people, vanished into thin air.

A team of Malaysian investigators said that there was no reason to suspect a mechanical problem, and that there was nothing that had suggested any malicious intent, concluding: "The team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370."

PA

And despite numerous extensive search efforts over the years, the wreckage of the plane has never been found.

Now aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey, who is a founding member of the MH370 Independent Group, has published a new report which used data gathered by technology called Weak Signal Propagation (WSPR) and is hopeful the technology can help pinpoint where the plane lies.

Speaking to Airline Ratings, Godfrey explained: "WSPR is like a bunch of tripwires or laser beams, but they work in every direction over the horizon to the other side of the globe."

Godfrey believes that the plane's pilot was 'clinically depressed' and deliberately changed the flight path to avoid being tracked.

In the report, he explained: "The pilot of MH370 generally avoided official flight routes from 18:00 UTC (2 am AWST) onwards but used waypoints to navigate on unofficial flight paths in the Malacca Strait, around Sumatra and across the Southern Indian Ocean. The flight path follows the coast of Sumatra and flies close to Banda Aceh Airport."

He added: "In case the aircraft was detected, the pilot also avoided giving a clear idea where he was heading by using a fight path with a number of changes of direction.

"These changes of track included toward the Andaman Islands, towards South Africa, towards Java, towards 2°S 92°E (where the Flight Information Regions of Jakarta, Colombo, and Melbourne meet) and towards Cocos Islands."

PA

This data leads Godfrey to believe the incident was 'carefully planned'.

Back in March, Godfrey used satellite and ocean data to determine the most likely area that the flight came down, which is 2,000 kilometres from the coast of west Australia, prompting calls from experts to restart the search.

Speaking to Sky, Geoffrey Thomas, an aviation editor, said: "There's a very high level of confidence in the industry that we are on the spot."

Godfrey is now awaiting a a more detailed analysis of the end of the flight which will be conducted soon.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: World News