A cutting-edge study, led by scientists at Cardiff University, has revealed a new method that offers hope of one day finding Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Applying hydroacoustic technology, the team analyzed more than 100 hours of underwater sound data to detect unique acoustic signatures caused by catastrophic events like airplane crashes.
Dr. Usama Kadri is one of the lead researchers of Cardiff University’s School of Mathematics and shared it has been very important work for the findings of the study. “Our analysis shows clear pressure signals from previous aircraft crashes were detected on hydrophones, even at distances exceeding 3,000 km,” he said. The study narrowed in on the information obtained by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization’s hydrophones at Cape Leeuwin, located in Western Australia, and others located in the Indian Ocean near Diego Garcia.
Since its disappearance on March 8, 2014, during its transit from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the mystery of MH370 has remained ominous. The wreckage has never been found, and multinational, extensive search operations conclude that heavy parts of it sank in the Indian Ocean, southwest of its intended destination, very close to where the last satellite data was transmitted from the airplane.
Hydrophones are sound waves and changes in pressure underwater microphones. Detection of signals of pressure is pre-emptive across many events, including aircraft crashes. The signals captured by hydrophones can travel thousands of kilometers and aid essentially in the localization and classification of events within the marine domain. Here, the team from Cardiff University applied model event signal filters to the data from hydroacoustic stations associated with CTBTO over the location and time frame affiliated with the last known position of MH370.
Prior analysis of the signal, conducted by researchers at Curtin University and one of the subsequent analyses estimated by Cardiff University, determined it was an audio signal originating from an unknown source somewhere close to the Cape Leeuwin station, towards the seventh arc. But it was just outside the time frame proposed by the official search. The latest research pinpointed only a single relevant signal in the direction of the seventh arc made to the Cape Leeuwin Station, although it was not detected by the Diego Garcia Station, which questions its origin.
Dr. Kadri expressed it as “there now might be the chance for controlled explosions or airgun discharges along the seventh arc, which will allow for verification of the relevance of the detected signals. The same operations had been done in the case of the ARA San Juan which was lost in waters off the Argentine coast in 2017”. These tests would allow probable improvements in the location of MH370 and add additional knowledge in the development of hydroacoustic techniques for the utility of other searches in the future.
“If related, this would markedly narrow down – almost zero in on – the aircraft’s position,” Dr Kadri said. “On the other hand, in the event, that the signals are not related, it would point authorities once again to a possible revision of the time frame and/or the position, as per the time and location of their official search efforts conducted to date.”
The paper highlights the capability of hydroacoustic technology to unravel the mystery of MH370 and increase our inability to track the loss of an aircraft and describe the accidents over wide oceanic areas. Though the precise location of the crash of MH370 cannot be found, the continuation of research has opened a new hope of closing the case for the families of 239 passengers and crew members and developing the system of hydroacoustic technologies for new crash site identification.