A new bombshell investigation is underway to find the missing passenger plane - and it could lead to a huge discovery in the coming weeks.
Ocean Infinity, an, said it's submitted proposals for a search, which will involve using three robot vessels to scour the sea floor. Once the project is given a greenlight from officials, it could start as soon as this month, and take a total of three months to complete.
According to Anthony Loke, Transport Minister for Malaysia, "advanced talks" are currently being held with the marine exploration company after they submitted plans to trawl a 15,000 sqkm area off of Western in June. The site is believed to be close to the last-known location of the jet. Ocean Infinity is offering it on a "no find, no fee" basis. This means that the $70million bill will only be paid by the government if they find the missing aircraft.
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Loke said: "Based on the latest information and analysis from experts and researchers, Ocean Infinity’s search proposal is credible and can be considered by the Malaysian government as the flight’s official registrar. The terms and costs requested are in the same draft agreement currently being negotiated between the government and Ocean Infinity. Should it be finalised, cabinet approval will be required, and I will make a public announcement."
Professor Simon Maskell, who works with his team at Liverpool University, is understood to be an adviser taking part in the search. The team has been investigating whether WSPR - otherwise known as amateur radio operation - could be used to track and detect aircraft. Ocean Infinity might also be utilising hydrophone data - which is detected by microphones placed under water - in the search.
The Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared from flight radars on March 8, 2014, and recovery operations have been underway ever since. Small traces of the plane and its parts have been found over the last decade but few clues to its resting spot have been found. Experts are still working on finding the plane, which was carrying 239 people between Kuala Lumpur to Beijing at the time of its crash.
Only a few pieces of washed-up debris have been found since its disappearance though a robotics team now believe they are closer than ever to pinpointing the location of the missing plane. Theories on what happened onboard the plane and where it currently is have dominated parts of the search over the last decade, and now new data has been presented to the government.
Dr Usama Kadri, a professor of maths and engineering at Cardiff University, says underwater microphones could be crucial to finding where the plane currently rests. Hundreds of hours of hydrophone data has already been analysed as part of a study, and a split-second noise is believed to be the last ever trace of MH370.
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