There is a strong belief in the aviation industry that searchers scouring the southern Indian Ocean for MH370 may find the Boeing 777 in the next four weeks.
Last week the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s contracted survey ship the Furgo Discovery resumed the deep sea search in a location identified 11 months ago by a Boeing 777 senior captain as the final resting place of MH370.
On December 22 Flightglobal, the world’s oldest and most respected industry magazine, published a mathematical and geometric calculation by
Captain Simon Hardy, also a mathematician, which indicated precisely where, according to his calculations, MH370 came down.
Captain Hardy’s recent refinements to the aircraft’s final descent profile puts it at S39 22′ 46″ E087 06′ 20″.
MH370, with 239 passengers and crew aboard, disappeared on March 8, 2014 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and the only trace so far is a small wing flap that was washed up on the Reunion Island earlier this year.
In his blog Flightglobal’s Consulting Editor David Learmount said that “for those seeking a reason to be optimistic following a discouraging 20 months of searching the ocean without a result, there is definite cause for renewed hope this time.”
“The impressive fact about Hardy’s mathematics is that, despite hundreds of thousands of hits on the article containing his calculations, nobody has been able to blow a hole in them,” said Mr Learmount.
“By 3 December Fugro Discovery expects to have completed the search of the area containing, according to Hardy’s calculations, the wreck of MH370 and the remains of those who went down with it.”
“Captain Hardy says he says he is excited about the next month’s search, having invested more than a year of mental and emotional energy into working out where MH370 flew, and why. He wants it found,” said Mr Learmount.
The location identified by Captain Hardy is just outside the initial search area of 60,000sq km but that area of interest was widened in April to 120,000sq km.
Captain Hardy’s “location” is also at the extreme edged of the range of the MH370 given its fuel and passenger/cargo load.
The search vessels have now covered over 70,000 sq km and with the weather improving the pace of the search is expected to pick up
