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New evidence? MH370 pilot’s flight path was “carefully planned”
It’s been seven years since the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 went missing without a trace, but is this a new piece to the puzzling mystery?
The pilot made many turns and speed changes… according to new research.
Apparently the pilot was most likely avoiding giving any clear idea where he was heading.
Aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey is behind the new research.
He says applying new technology will provide “credible new evidence”, that was not available during previous underwater searches.
On March 7th, 2014 the Boeing 777 took off for Kaula Lumpa bound for Beijing
The aircraft disappeared from air traffic controls screens – only one hour into the flight.
239 women, men and children were on board.
New technology leading new findings
Godfrey is seen one of world’s leading investigators into the mystery.
He based his findings on weak radio signals that cover the earth. also called Weak Signal Propagation (WSPR), which is a digital radio communication protocol.
“WSPR is like a bunch of tripwires or laser beams, but they work in every direction over the horizon to the other side of the globe,” Mr. Godfrey says.
He said they triggered invisible signals when aircraft crossed them and they can help solve the mystery of MH370.
The flight path appears “carefully planned” said Mr. Godfrey.
“The pilot of MH370 generally avoided official flight routes from 18:00 UTC (2am Australian Western Standard Time) onwards but used waypoints to navigate on unofficial flight paths in the Malacca Strait, around Sumatra and across the Southern Indian Ocean,” Mr Godfrey said.
“The flight path seems well planned and avoids commercial flight routes. The pilot appears not so concerned about fuel usage and much more concerned about leaving false trails.”
“The significant number of changes of track and speed suggest that there was an active pilot during the flight,” Mr. Godfrey said.
“Speed changes were beyond the level of changes expected if the aircraft was following a speed schedule such as the long range cruise (LRC) or maximum range cruise (MRC) mode.”
“The pilot of MH370 generally avoided official flight routes from 18:00 UTC (2 am AWST) onwards but used waypoints to navigate on unofficial flight paths in the Malacca Strait, around Sumatra and across the Southern Indian Ocean. The flight path follows the coast of Sumatra and flies close to Banda Aceh Airport,” Mr. Godfrey said.
He said all the end-of-flight analysis points to a spiral dive into the ocean.
Its suspected crash site at 34.5 degrees south, south-west of Western Australia
This new paper examines in finer detail the turn around Indonesia before settling onto a course for the Southern Indian Ocean.
Two searches failed to find any trace of the plane…but Godfrey says a more detailed analysis of flight’s final destination will be underway soon.
Although, there continues to be more questions than answers to the greatest aviation mystery of all time.