Ocean Infinity’s Armada 7806 vessel, one of the most advanced ships of its kind, will spearhead efforts to locate MH370’s wreckage. Photo / Getty Images
Ocean Infinity’s Armada 7806 vessel, one of the most advanced ships of its kind, will spearhead efforts to locate MH370’s wreckage. Photo / Getty Images
The mission operates on a “no find, no fee” basis, with US$70 million at stake if successful.
A British marine robotics company has launched what will likely be the final search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, in an attempt to solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
Ocean Infinity has begun scouring the seabed in an attempt to find the wreck of MH370, which disappeared 11 years ago after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
The company’s deep-water support vessel Armada 7806 arrived at a new search zone in the Indian Ocean 1200 miles off Perth, Australia, over the weekend, marine tracking websites show.
It is understood that autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) were deployed from the ship within hours of its arrival at the site and have commenced detailed scans of the ocean floor.
The AUVs – and the remote vehicles that would help recover the wreckage were it to be found – are operated via a satellite link from Ocean Infinity’s control centre in Southampton.
The deployment may offer the last hope of finding the remains of the lost Boeing 777 that disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board.
MH370 was due to have flown north to Beijing but turned back before reaching Vietnam and veered southwest across the Malay peninsula towards the Indian Ocean, prior to leaving radar range.
The mission comes after Malaysia indicated in December that it was ready to back a fresh bid to locate the wreckage of the jet, following two earlier failed attempts.
Kuala Lumpur said at the time that it had given outline approval to a “no find, no fee” deal in which Ocean Infinity would be paid US$70 million (NZ$122m) only if it found the aircraft.
However, no final agreement was announced. It is believed that Ocean Infinity has chosen to go ahead with the plan on its own account, before the arrival of winter in the southern hemisphere.
The Armada 7806 is expected to explore three or four so-called “hotspots” where researchers have suggested that the remains of the plane’s fuselage might be located.
The vessel is likely to spend up to six weeks poring over the area, including a break to take on provisions in Fremantle, Western Australia, where previous search attempts were based.
With the search likely to be the last conducted for MH370, the effort could go on for longer, weather permitting.
Ocean Infinity boss Oliver Plunkett had sought to negotiate a ‘no find, no fee’ deal with the Malaysian government ahead of the search. Photo / Getty Images
Oliver Plunkett, the chief executive of Ocean Infinity, previously told relatives of those lost on MH370 that it was his life’s ambition to find the plane. The company, controlled by Plunkett and two other Britons, halted an earlier bid in 2018 without success.
Like previous efforts, the new search is focused on an arc of the southern Indian Ocean along which the jet is thought to have come down based on regular signals exchanged between the aircraft and an Inmarsat communications satellite.
It is understood that the Armada 7806, built in 2023 and regarded as the most technically advanced ship of its kind, will concentrate initial scans on an area which independent researchers have suggested got insufficient attention during earlier missions.
A second zone is located further south on the assumption that MH370 may have travelled around 100 nautical miles further than previously calculated after running out of fuel, if one of the pilots was still in control of the plane.
The calculations, from a group including former Air France pilot Patrick Blelly, are consistent with theories that MH370 was steered off course and crashed into the ocean as part of an elaborate murder-suicide plot by its captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
A third search area is based on extrapolations of the jet’s final position derived from how it may have interfered with transmissions from ham radio operators.
Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 on board. Photo / Getty Images
These hobbyists rely on so-called WSPR transmitters, which send thousands of low-power radio pulses around the world every two minutes.
The signals are disturbed should an aircraft cross them. Richard Godfrey – a retired aerospace engineer who has worked with Nasa – said analysis revealed 130 such disturbances to signals crossing the Indian Ocean on the night MH370 vanished, representing a “trail of crumbs” that could indicate its final trajectory.
A fourth hotspot, identified by the University of Western Australia, may be examined if the weather holds out.
Godfrey said the expedition will nevertheless face huge challenges and estimated the likelihood of MH370 being found at “about 50-50”.
He said: “People think the seabed is smooth but really it’s a horrible place. It’s covered in canyons and cliffs, seamounts and volcanoes, pitch black with huge pressure and temperatures only slightly above zero.”
The new search area is nonetheless relatively compact, spanning around 15,000sq km in total, compared with 120,000 each for the two earlier efforts.
The AUVs are able to spend four days submerged, twice as long as their predecessors in 2018, can descend to 6km deep – allowing them to easily reach the ocean floor 4.6km down – and are equipped with a formidable array of 3D-imagers, sonars, lasers and cameras.
Should the wreckage be found, Ocean Infinity would not be allowed to raise it without Malaysia’s say-so, although the Government there would inevitably come under huge pressure to go ahead with a recovery effort.
Ocean Infinity said it had as yet no further information to provide following the December update. The Malaysian transport department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
