New MH370 evidence and theory as search resumes with ATSB in Australia
Australian air safety investigators have cross matched data with new evidence now suggesting a different flight pattern and possible location for the plane. HAVE YOUR SAY.
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Australian air safety investigators have quietly renewed their search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, cross matching data with new evidence now suggesting a different flight pattern and possible location for the missing aircraft.
In a stunning development to aviation’s greatest mystery, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has confirmed it and Geoscience Australia have been reviewing their data in the wake of a detailed technical report from a British aerospace engineer.
The ATSB’s involvement in the search for MH370 – which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board – officially concluded five years ago.
But the ATSB’s new chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said he remained “open minded” about the new theory, data was actively being reviewed with tech advances and a public announcement was expected in a fortnight.
His team assigned to the latest review include staff from the original probe.
“Because it puts the aircraft in an area that we have already searched, I guess me coming in with a due diligence and a new set of eyes, we are to taking a review of the data that we hold there and that’s being done in conjunction with Geoscience Australia,” he told News Corp Australia/Sky News.
The analysis includes matching data gathered by the ATSB’s original search vessel GO Phoenix to that by British engineer Richard Godfrey, who helped design part of the International Space Station.
He claims, in a detailed report released last month, MH370 was put into a 22-minute circle holding pattern before it shot out toward the Indian Ocean. He used technology used by ham radio operators to contact each other that effectively lay digital trip wires that record frequency “disturbances” from something crossing their path.
Mr Godfrey has plotted eight recorded disturbances suspected to have been created by the flight that puts it further to the north end of the original ATSB search zone and the later search by Ocean Infinity but on the same “arc 7 band”, 1933km west of Perth.
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Mr Mitchell said he was not making any calls on the credibility of the evidence and did not want to give any false hope to families and loved ones of those on-board.
But he likened it to casting a fresh eye on a police-type cold case of evidence based on the use of the ham radio technology, known as Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) commonly referred to as “whisper”.
He added there had not been any sort of break in the case in the past five years before the emergence of the whisper potential and if the location threw up something, the Godfrey claim about the 22-minute holding pattern would also be looked at.
“At the moment, we’re looking at the data that we hold, where Mr Godfrey’s theory suggests the plane went down,” he said. “I think that once that theory and the technology that he’s using has gone through that scientific process and has been verified or otherwise, then I think the other questions that remain unanswered, and that (flight path) may well be one of them.”
Mr Mitchell confirmed the holding pattern theory had not been raised before and could be a game changer.
“If it were to be true, it would certainly make us rethink some of the assumptions that were held at the time. Whether that changes where the plane ended up, it’s too early to make any call on that.”
He reinforced it would be up to the Malaysian Government to consider whether based on analyses, a broader renewal of the search was warranted.
WHERE MH370 BLACKBOXES WILL BE KEPT
In the offices of newly appointed ATSB boss Angus Mitchell are two boxes, gathering dust.
They were built to house the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder from the MH370 aircraft when it is found.
Like most people around the world, Mr Mitchell had expected them to be filled by now, but they sit as a reminder of one of the world’s greatest mysteries and inspiration for the ATSB to fill them.
“One day it would be great for them to be full,” Mr Mitchell told Sky News.
“Either those boxes or if there’s another search party that locates it, at the end of the day, everyone, from the families to the investigators that were part of this team to the worldwide aviation community to those who travel on planes, want the answers to MH370.”
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