where is the research, ten years after the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane?

This Friday marks ten years since the air disaster which left 239 missing during a flight linking Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Franceinfo takes stock of the investigations.

Two letters, three numbers and a mystery that still remains. It’s been just ten years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014. Kuala Lumpur, he never reached his destination, Beijing. On board: 239 passengers of 14 different nationalities (including 12 crew members) who were never found. Among them, four French people from Seine-Maritime. Franceinfo takes stock of the investigation, while relatives of the victims continue to call for new research.

First debris found in Reunion in 2015

In the days following the disappearance of the Malaysian airline’s Boeing 777, millions of people began searching for it. Anonymous people from all over the world comb through tens of thousands of satellite images and millions of pages of Internet users scrutinizing the surface of the ocean scroll through the Tomnod collaborative platform. The world is passionate about flight MH370. These enthusiasts even have a name: the “MHists”.

In July 2015, a little over a year after the disappearance of the plane, a piece of wing resurfaced on a beach in Reunion. More than a month after this discovery, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed “for sure” that this debris belonged to the Malaysia Airlines aircraft. The assessments carried out at the laboratory of the General Directorate of Armaments of the Ministry of Defense (DGA TA), near Toulouse, make it possible to identify “three numbers inside the flaperon” which lead to a Spanish company subcontracting to Boeing and located in Seville.

Other debris was then found in the region, some of which were identified as having belonged to the missing plane. Each of these discoveries revives the hope of the victims’ loved ones. But the black boxes, like the wreck of the Boeing 777, remain untraceable.

Research suspended at the beginning of 2017…

In total, more than 120,000 square kilometers have been combed in the southern Indian Ocean. Which makes this research the most extensive in the history of aviation. Australia, Malaysia and China are spending 130 million euros in this meticulous search of the seabed. Hundreds of planes and boats are mobilized.

But in January 2017, the three countries, hence the majority of victims are from, decide to suspend their research. A judgment judged at the time “totally incomprehensible” by Ghyslain Wattrelos, originally from Saint-Aubin-sur-Scie (Seine-Maritime), who lost his wife and two of his three children during the crash. “It took them two years to find the aircraft that made the Rio-Paris flight. However, they knew, roughly, where the plane had fallen. Here, after two and a half years, we stopped the search, while we don’t know where the plane fell. So yes, we must continue the search.”he reacted at the time on franceinfo.

July 2, 2018, an official report of nearly 500 pages (in PDF) finally closes the investigation, providing no definitive answers. Enough to further fuel the theories and speculations around one of the greatest mysteries in the history of civil aviation: pilot suicide, in-flight accident, missile launch, sabotaged aircraft, compromising passenger, depressurization, fire on board…

… but which could resume soon

The investigation into the disappearance of flight MH370, however, may not be completely over. Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook took advantage of a commemoration ceremony on Sunday March 3 to make an announcement: research could finally resume. He said the government would meet with representatives of US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to launch a new attempt to locate the device. This news has sparked a wave of hope among the victims’ families. For them, finding the cabin of MH370 would be a way of mourning, ten years later.

Ocean Infinity, a Texas-based company, has already undertaken efforts to find the Boeing 777, but its previous explorations of the seabed have proven unsuccessful. “We now feel in a position to be able to resume the search for MH370 and have submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government, confirms Oliver Plunkett, its general manager, in the columns of the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times. Finding MH370 and providing an answer to all those related to the loss of the aircraft has been a constant in our minds since we left the southern Indian Ocean in 2018.”

Ghyslain Wattrelos remains convinced that the truth is hidden. Guest of “Télématin” Thursday, the father of the family launched an appeal to François HollandePresident of the Republic at the time of his disappearance. “He’s never said anything about it. It’s obvious he knows about it and doesn’t want to get involved.”