Malaysia has announced it will resume the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 which disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. The country is planning a "no find, no fee" contract with Texas robotics company Ocean Infinity to use its underwater search equipment in an undisclosed area of the Indian Ocean. The government will pay Ocean Infinity $70 million if it finds significant wreckage of the missing plane but won't pay anything if the search comes up empty.
Does someone know something? Closure for the families will mean everything. The details will emerge with time. Emerging sensitivity detecting the remains gives hope to all the affected individuals and families. I think searchers have a good shot at success. One way or another his may well close the door on this catastrophy for our time.
Although we already know the aircraft is down there somewhere from earlier wreckage recovery, getting a solid location would be helpful in validating a lot of the earlier analysis done right after the loss of the flight. However, even (miraculously) finding the recorders may not help. The CVR is a two-hour model, so overwritten at least three times from the early part of the flight where the course deviation began, and while the FDR might tell “what” happened with the aircraft, it’s probably not going to tell us why. (And that’s assuming the recorders survive 11 years of pressure at 15,000 or so feet deep…). Best of luck to the salvage crew - it’s an extraordinarily difficult task they’ve taken on.
Ocean Infinity probably has two or more search areas pinned based on probability. The search will progress based on probability of finding something and their cost vs reward. There will be another pull the plug point and I wish them the best in the endeavor.
Let’s not forget there are a lot of other things left in the bottom of the Indian Ocean including 4 of my ship mates that went down for unspecified cause in their EA-6B Prowler in Nov 1979. RIP