On March 8, 2014, the Malaysia Airlines aircraft vanished approximately 38 minutes after departing Kuala Lumpur airport, bound for Beijing.
Despite extensive efforts by both governmental entities and private enterprises, the plane has eluded discovery, leaving the fate of its 237 passengers still shrouded in unknown.
Amateur radio technology known as WSPR hailed as 'groundbreaking', played a vital role in revealing an intriguing discovery. According to a recently published 229-page report, the missing wreckage might be found approximately 1,560km westward of Perth.
Through the use of WSPR, researchers Richard Godfrey, Dr. Hannes Coetzee, and Professor Simon Maskell successfully employed this technology to detect and monitor the plane's flight trajectory.
'This technology has been developed over the past three years and the results represent credible new evidence,' the researchers stated.
'It aligns with analyses by Boeing (...) and drift analyses by University of Western Australia of debris recovered around the Indian Ocean.'
As an aircraft traverses an amateur radio signal or WSPR network, it causes disruptions in the signals, which are then documented and stored in a global database.
In this study, 125 of these disturbances were utilized to trace the plane's trajectory for over six hours following one of its final radio exchanges around 6 p.m.
The convergence of this data with information from Boeing, Inmarsat satellites, and drift analysis yields a remarkable result: the identification of a single crash site, marking a noteworthy outcome with substantial interdisciplinary implications.
'Together with (the data), a comprehensive picture of the final hours of flight MH370 can be collated,' the researchers said.
'Flight MH370 was diverted into the Indian Ocean where it crashed of fuel exhaustion (...) at some point after the last signal after midnight.
'At the time of writing, MH370 still has not been found despite extensive surface and underwater searches.
'About 10 million commercial passengers fly every day and the safety of the airline industry relies on finding the cause of every accident.'
In July 2020, Dr. Westphal introduced the idea of implementing WSPR technology to track MH370, drawing inspiration from similar suggestions made in a NATO paperback in 2016 for other aircraft.
The scientists' latest hypothesis positions the presumed crash site slightly northward from previous estimations by researchers and investigators, with a depth of 4000m.
The proposed area for the potential crash site, spanning approximately 130km by 89km, remains largely unexplored, with less than half of it having been searched thus far.
While the report brings hope to the families who have been seeking answers for over nine years, it does have its limitations.
Aviation expert Geoff Thomas mentioned on the Today show on Friday that he viewed the report with optimism but acknowledged that it had faced resistance.
'There has been some criticism, but this report has been peer reviewed,' Mr Thomas said.
'A scientist from the University of Liverpool and the ocean company who did the search in 2018 will use it as a basis for a new search.
'There is a very high level of confidence. It has been four years in the making, being reviewed over and over again.
'They (the researchers) are certain that they have located where this aircraft is.'
The disappearance of the aircraft served as a somber milestone for Malaysia Airlines and the aviation industry, occurring just months prior to the tragic downing of MH17 in Ukraine.
MH370 took off from Malaysia just before 5 p.m., carrying a total of 12 crew members and 227 passengers from 14 different countries, including 153 individuals from China.
According to data from both civilian and military radar systems, the aircraft was observed flying back over the Malacca Strait and venturing into the vast Indian Ocean.
Approximately 7.5 hours into the flight, MH370 exhausted its fuel reserves, leading to the plane crashing into the ocean just 11 minutes later. Despite extensive search efforts, the wreckage of the aircraft has never been located.
Over the years, fragments of the aircraft have been discovered as far away as Madagascar, with a total of 41 pieces recovered.
