MH370 debris hunter, Blaine Gibson, who has both found more MH370 debris than any other person and been the rallying point to find wreckage, has pleaded for co-operation between the various experts who are trying to help find the final resting place of the Boeing 777 that disappeared over seven years ago with 239 souls on board.
Mr. Gibson is prompted to write the plea below after criticism of new breakthrough work done by Richard Godfrey that offers the possibility of a more precise location of the impact point of MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean.
We publish Mr. Gibson’s views in full and without edit.
“There has been a lot of white noise lately about Inmarsat data interpretation, speculation about the captain inputting different bearings on a suicide mission, and the use of WSPR data to identify the flight path and crash site.
“All these efforts are commendable, but none have yet resulted in finding a single piece of the plane. Many experts say the WSPR data is not capable of detecting MH 370. They complain it is new and untested, however so was the Inmarsat data analysis when it was first applied.
“Experts disagree over mathematical calculations of different intangible signal evidence, but all seem to wind up in close to the same place for different reasons. And fortunately, most of those places are roughly consistent with the debris drift analysis.
“Whether based on Inmarsat data, WSPR, or speculative bearings input by an airline captain, X marks the spot proclamations that MH 370 was last detected or crashed at exactly 34.2342°S 93.7875°E, or other specific coordinates, are well intended, but no more than inconclusive best estimates.
“One may as well carry out the digits further by .14159 repeating to appear more precise. Experts debate and revise them, come up with different ones, but usually wind up in close to the same place.
“It does not help convince Ocean Infinity to risk and spend millions more to search again because experts calculated exactly where 370 crashed, and tell OI they searched there and missed it the first time.
“It doesn’t help convince the Malaysians to sign a no find no fee contract to restart the search by claiming without proof that the captain was on a premeditated mass murder-suicide mission, and telling them experts know what bearing he plugged in and have calculated precisely where he crashed the plane.
“Let’s focus on the what and the where and find the crash site before delving into the who and the why. There has been more white noise about INMARSAT data, speculated simulator and flight bearings, and WSPR signals than there were actual signals from MH370 that night.
“So let’s get back to basics .. the only actual physical evidence of what happened to Malaysian 370 and where it is – is the debris. So let’s filter out the white noise of arguing experts, and go with the recommendation of the people that have directly contributed to finding half of the recovered pieces of the plane.
“Prof Chari Pattiaratchi (University of Western Australia) still recommends searching 32°S to 34° S, 70 nautical miles on both sides of the 7th arc. And we may as well add in the area from 34°S to 34.5° S to include the places where different experts place the X on different crash sites using different calculations of different data.
“I sincerely hope that Ocean Infinity will restart the search and that Malaysia will agree to another no find no fee contract in accordance with Prof. Chari’s recommendation. It is not my money or my risk, but my humble recommendation is: Re-examine the data where Ocean Infinity already searched to identify if there are any areas where debris could have been missed.
“Search the centerline between 32°S and 34.5° S searched by others, but not previously searched by Ocean Infinity with its improved technological capacity. Search 70 nm wide on both sides of the 7th arc in case the experts’ calculations are slightly off. So far all the recovered MH370 debris has been found by almost twenty different unrelated private citizens from six different countries. Let’s focus on the debris and oceanography, come together and agree on as much as we can, restart the underwater search, and find the rest of the plane and the truth.”
