As a renewed hunt for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 gets underway, a leading aeroplane engineer has come forward with a compelling theory. He claims a critical piece of evidence has been overlooked, potentially turning the aviation world's greatest mystery into a solvable case.
A Decade-Long Mystery and a Fresh Search
The Boeing 777, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, disappeared on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. After vanishing from radar over the Andaman Sea, satellite data indicated it flew on for hours before presumably crashing into the Indian Ocean when its fuel was exhausted.
Now, the American marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity – famed for locating Ernest Shackleton's Endurance – is preparing a new 55-day search operation. This follows their unsuccessful attempt in 2018. A vessel equipped with two autonomous underwater vehicles has already arrived at a designated search zone.
The Overlooked Clue: Magnetic Compass Deviation
Ismail Hamad, Chief Engineer at Egypt Air, has presented a detailed technical argument. While he does not completely dismiss theories of a 'perfect crime' involving a landing on an abandoned airstrip in the Philippine islands, he believes investigators have missed a vital factor.
Hamad asserts that the search has been misguided by relying too heavily on Inmarsat satellite signals. He argues that authorities must instead account for the deviation between the aircraft's magnetic compass and true north.
"That deviation value result of a continuous seven flight hours... will trace a logical arc southward into the Indian Ocean, but not in the same previously searched and very deep area offshore of Perth," Hamad explained.
A New Proposed Search Corridor
According to Hamad's calculations, combining compass drift with fuel consumption data and satellite handshakes could narrow the official search arc to just 10 per cent of its current size. His conclusion points away from the deep waters west of Perth that have been extensively scoured.
Instead, he predicts the aircraft will be found in a shallower corridor closer to the western Australian coast. This area, he says, would make debris more detectable with existing sonar technology.
"This is not guesswork, but it is an engineering inevitability if we follow the aviation fundamentals," Hamad stated. He also questioned the debris found off Africa, noting a lack of explosive damage or soot, which might suggest a controlled ditching rather than a violent, fuel-driven explosion.
The renewed search brings a fragile hope to the families of the victims, like Jiang Hui's mother, who have waited over a decade for answers. Whether Hamad's engineering-led theory proves correct remains to be seen, but it offers a new, technically-grounded path in the quest to solve aviation's most enduring puzzle.
