A team of researchers may have finally pinpointed the location of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, thanks to an innovative amateur radio technology known as WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter).
Richard Godfrey, Dr. Hannes Coetzee, and Professor Simon Maskell have been working on this technology for the past three years, and their findings align with analyses by Boeing and the University of Western Australia.
WSPR works by detecting disturbances in amateur radio signals when an aircraft flies through them. These disturbances are recorded in a global database.
The team used 125 such disturbances to track the plane's path for over six hours after its last radio contact. Combined with data from Boeing, Inmarsat satellites, and drift analysis, the researchers are confident they have located the crash site.
The new location is about 1560km west of Perth and at a depth of 4000m, slightly north of previous estimates. The area is 130km by 89km, and less than half of it has been searched so far.
The report offers hope to families who have been searching for answers for over nine years.
The disappearance of MH370 has been one of aviation's greatest mysteries since the plane vanished on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The safety of the airline industry relies on solving every accident, and MH370 is no exception. The plane carried 237 passengers whose fate remains unknown.
While the report has faced some pushback, it has also been peer-reviewed and is supported by a scientist from the University of Liverpool. A new search based on these findings is in the planning stages.
