More than ten years later Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared after being thousands of miles off course, his whereabouts remain unknown.
The Malaysian government has promised to pay private company Ocean Infinity $70 million (£56 million) to search for the plane on a “no find, no fee” basis.
The company intends to target an area of 15,000 sq. km (5,800 sq mi) in the Indian Ocean, where the missing plane is believed to have the best chance of being found.
What do we know so far?
Flight MH370, carrying 12 Malaysian crew and 227 passengers, took off from Kuala Lumpur on a routine flight to Beijing shortly before 1am on 8 March 2014.
At 2.22 am, turning west, away from the planned route, the Boeing 777 disappeared from radar coverage while over the Andaman Sea.
Satellites continued to receive hourly signals from the plane, indicating it was still flying, until 8 a.m., when it is believed to have run out of fuel.
These hourly signals were used to triangulate the distance between the satellite and the aircraft, but this only places it within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000 sq mi) search area in the southern Indian Ocean.
“It's a monstrously large circle,” says Simon Maskell, professor of autonomous systems at the University of Liverpool and former scientific adviser to Ocean Infinity.
Numerous details and wreckage was found around the shores of the Indian Ocean and was identified as belonging to MH370, including parts of the wing, tail, cabin and engine. No human remains were found, but everyone on board is presumed dead.
What is ocean infinity?
The marine robotics and seabed exploration company, based in the UK and US, “has experience finding things that are hard to find on the ocean floor,” says Maskell.
The company is best known for providing the Falkland Islands Maritime Heritage Trust with submarine experts and underwater robots that helped Find Sir Ernest Shackleton's lost ship, the Endurance. in 2022.
Ocean Infinity had a bad year in 2018 searched more than 80,000 sq. km of ocean for MH370. Now he is determined to try again.
What equipment will Ocean Infinity use?
The company has a fleet of Hugin 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which can create a 3D map of the ocean floor at depths of up to 6,000 meters using sonar, laser, optical and echo technologies. The cost of each car is estimated at no less than $8 million.
Despite operating in the dark, the fleet can capture sonar images of its surroundings by bouncing acoustic pulses off anything nearby and using lasers to scan unidentified objects (called “points of interest”) and create detailed 3D images.
Each free-floating AUV can be controlled remotely, but it is primarily used to carry out missions independently of the operator and then return to the surface. It can stay underwater for 100 hours before the battery runs out.
“You can say, 'Make me a map of this area and come back when you're done,'” Maskell says.
What happens if a plane wreck is found?
Each AUV can send limited samples of the data it collects (such as detecting a “point of interest”) to a surface ship and receive mission updates from operators who monitor its progress using an acoustic communications system.
“This [the AUV] uses a subfloor profiler to see how much sediment is there and how far one has to dive to reach the solid seabed, says Richard Godfrey, an independent aviation researcher. “It is also equipped with a magnetometer, so it can detect metal even if it is buried under several meters of sediment.”
If necessary, the surface ship can also send remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to Earth to shine spotlights on the object so it can be filmed and photographed.
They have robotic arms that can also be controlled remotely to allow the machine to grasp, rotate and inspect objects. It can also return smaller objects to the surface.
How big is the search area?
Ocean Infinity has begun searching for a priority area of 15,000 square meters. km in February, but canceled the expedition in April after 22 days due to bad weather conditions. It will resume on December 30 and will last 55 days.
Godfrey estimates the company has already searched about 10,000 square meters. km and plans to search another 25,000 sq. km, spending “tens of millions of dollars” on ships and equipment.
“I don't think they're in it for the $70 million cash reward because this search is very, very expensive. I think they're in it for the achievement and the ability to position themselves as the greatest underwater search firm in the world because they found MH370,” he says.
What are the biggest challenges?
“The ocean floor is a very difficult environment to navigate,” Maskell says. “It's not just plain. There are huge mountains, ridges and chasms – and you have to look everywhere.”
The Indian Ocean has canyons more than 300 meters (1,000 feet) deep, cliffs that suddenly rise thousands of meters above the seafloor and active volcanoes to look out for, Godfrey said.
Although the area that Ocean Infinity is searching has been explored before, it is believed that the data may be incomplete. “It's not a very easy place to search,” he says.
“One of the biggest challenges Ocean Infinity faces is the risk of getting very close to the MH370 wreckage and missing it due to difficult terrain or gaps in survey data.”
The company is also searching in “very inhospitable waters,” Maskell said. “This is not the kind of place you would want to go kayaking. The sea is rough.”
Around the clock, the crew will have to analyze data, recharge AUVs that return to the surface, monitor AUVs and ROVs that are still searching, make sure all their equipment is working, and fix anything that doesn't, “while trying not to get seasick from the ridiculously large waves they face,” Maskell says.
But by far the biggest challenge of this mission is one that Ocean Infinity has already overcome: deciding where to look.
“You can have the greatest technology in the world, but if you look in the wrong places, it won't help you,” Maskell says.
