A new strategy to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been devised by Cardiff University researchers. Metro reports that audio signals recorded at an Australian hydroacoustic station may hold the key to finding missing flight MH370.
Notably, distinct acoustic signatures produced by an aircraft crash into the water can be heard over 3,000 kilometers away. Even at distances greater than 3,000 kilometers, hydrophones picked up distinct pressure signals from earlier aircraft crashes, according to Dr. Usama Kadri, a Reader at Cardiff University’s School of Mathematics.
Scientific Reports is the journal where the research details from the Cardiff team were published.Based on over 100 hours of data collected by hydrophones after ten previous aircraft crashes, including one in which a submarine vanished, the study was carried out.
”In the case of MH370, official investigations concluded the aircraft must have crashed near the 7th arc – the point at which the last communication between the plane and INMERSAT occurred. The main search area at the 7th arc lies less than 2,000km away from the hydroacoustic station at Cape Leeuwin, Australia, with no impediments to filter out the signal. However, within the time frame and location suggested by the official search, only a single, relatively weak signal was identified,” Dr Kadri said.
The team has proposed a series of controlled underwater explosions or air gunfire along the 7th arc to see whether they can isolate a more precise location for MH370.
”Similar exercises were performed in the search and rescue mission for the ARA San Juan, a submarine that vanished off the coast of Argentina in 2017. This shows us that it is relatively straightforward and feasible and could provide a means to determine the signal’s relevance to MH370, prior to resuming with another extensive search. If found to be related, this would significantly narrow down, almost pinpoint, the aircraft’s location,” Dr Kadri added.
Notably, on March 8, 2014, flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, vanished from Kuala Lumpur Airport in southern Malaysia while traveling to Beijing, China. There was very little evidence of the aircraft remaining after a nearly three-year search that covered 120,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean. A few pieces of debris were discovered. The operation was halted in January 2017 because the plane has never been located, despite the biggest search in aviation history.
On March 3, however, the Malaysian government declared that they are thinking about starting the search again in response to a resurgence of interest in the MH370 mystery. In addition, Ocean Infinity, a Texas-based business, offered a “no find, no fee” arrangement to find the aircraft.
