After 11 years of agony for the families of passengers lost on downed flight MH370, a new search is about to begin amid fresh hope one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries will be solved.
US and UK company Ocean Infinity’s vessel, Armada, is tracking from Mauritius to the crash zone, some 1500 kilometres west of Perth in the Indian Ocean.
“It’s massive that the search is starting again to bring closure to the loved ones left behind,” aviation expert Geoff Thomas said.
Six Australians were among 239 people on board when the Malaysia Airlines flight vanished on March 8, 2014.
Perth father Paul Weeks was one of them.
“It will haunt me forever until I know, and I don’t know how long that’s going to be,” widow Danica Weeks said in 2014.
“If that’s my lifetime – that’s my lifetime. But I won’t stop trying to find the truth.”
The new search will focus on an area 30 kilometres from the last unsuccessful mission.
“This new search was brought about by work done by UK aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey, who has developed a new revolutionary tracking system using amateur radio waves,” Thomas said.
“The likelihood is extremely high that we will find it.”
Ocean Infinity issued the Malaysian government with a no find, no fee contract, requesting a $70 million payment if the mission’s a success.
So far the contract remains unsigned but the search is going ahead anyway.
“The issue is, we believe the Malaysians don’t want to find this aircraft because of the secrets it will reveal,” Thomas said.
The vessel is set to arrive at a search zone spanning 15,000 square kilometres as early as Sunday.
