Major claim missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could be found in ‘a matter of days’ finally bringing an end to the nine year mystery

The mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could be solved in a matter of days if a new search were carried out, experts say.

Flight MH370 disappeared about 38 minutes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur Airport in southern Malaysia en route to Beijing, China, on March 8, 2014.

Despite a frantic search by governments and private companies, the plane has never been found and the fate of its 237 passengers remains unknown.

In September, aerospace expert Jean-Luc Marchand and pilot Patrick Blally called for a new search based on revelations about the flight’s fate.

During a lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society, the pair said the new search area could be surveyed in just 10 days as part of a public appeal for help.

“We did our homework. We have a proposal… the area is small, and given the new capabilities, it will take 10 days,” said Mr. Marchand.

“It can be fast. Until the piece of MH370 is found, no one knows (what happened). But this is a very likely trajectory.”

The pair called on the Australian Transport Safety Authority, the Malaysian government and research company Ocean Infinity to launch a new search.

Last year, Ocean Infinity said it was interested in resuming its search by surveying parts of the Indian Ocean on a “no find, no fee” basis.

Mr Marchand said the “fast” search could be a good test bed for the company’s new unmanned underwater search technology.

Importantly, the pair told RAS that the new search area was based on the assumption that the plane was deliberately hijacked and shot down in the deep ocean.

Mr Marshad described it as a “horrible one-way journey” which he believed was probably carried out by an experienced plane pilot.

“We think, and our research has shown, that the hijacking was probably carried out by an experienced pilot,” Mr Marshad said.

“The cabin was depressurized … and it was soft controlled to create a minimum amount of debris. This was done to avoid being caught or found.

“Of course, except for the military, the plane was not visible. The guy knew that if search and rescue operations began, it would be on the flight path.”

The pair provided further evidence that the plane’s transponder was turned off and that the turn it made away from its flight path could not have been carried out on autopilot.

Crucially, the sudden change in direction occurred while the plane was in “no man’s land” between the airspace of Thailand, Indonesia, India and Malaysia.

“What were the hijackers’ intentions? This is a very sensitive area. You have Thai and South Indian radars, but they don’t care,” Mr McRhard said.

“You have reached the combat range and also the radar, so this area is in no man’s land. No control, no visibility in Kuala Lumpur. So the guy can do whatever he wants.”

The bold announcement comes as a separate new report about the missing plane identified a new search area off the Australian coast, sparking renewed interest in the search.

The 229-page report suggested the missing wreckage could be located about 1,560km west of Perth and was based on “revolutionary” radio technology.

Researchers Richard Godfrey, Dr Hannes Coetzee and Professor Simon Maskell used a weak signal propagation reporter (WSPR) to track the aircraft.

“This technology has been developed over the past three years, and the results provide new, credible evidence,” the researchers said.

“This is consistent with Boeing’s analysis (…) and the University of Western Australia’s analysis of the drift of debris found in the Indian Ocean.”

The disappearance of MH370 is one of aviation’s most enduring mysteries and has attracted the attention of experts and conspiracy theorists alike.

MH370 took off from Malaysia shortly before 5pm with 12 crew and 227 passengers from 14 countries, including 153 from China.

At around 5.20 pm, Captain Zari Shah responded to Malaysian air traffic control, stating: “… contact Ho Chi Minh (…) good night.”

Amazingly, the plane went dark soon after and then turned back over Malaysia, in the opposite direction of its intended flight path.

Initial civilian and military radar data indicated the aircraft was returning through the Strait of Malacca into the vast Indian Ocean.

After about 7.5 hours, MH370 ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean 11 minutes later, never to be found.

In subsequent years, aircraft wreckage was found even in Madagascar; a total of 41 intact fragments were discovered.

Speculation about the reason for the strange detour ranges from a terrorist hijacking of the plane to it being hijacked by the US for some reason.

The claims, which are heavily disputed by US authorities such as the FBI, claim the plane was directed to a remote island or atoll.

Other claims centered on Captain Shah’s family and whether the plane was deliberately dropped into the Indian Ocean.

For their part, Marchand and Blelli said they do not formally blame the pilot, but they cannot exonerate him until the plane is found.

There have been speculations about the possibility of a fire, a cyber attack or a plane being shot down, but they have not been able to provide a reliable answer to the mystery.

That same year, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by Russian-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, sparking outrage.

Indonesia, near Malaysia, also witnessed tragedy in 2018 when Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea just 13 minutes after takeoff.