Flight MH370: can underwater sound signals solve aviation’s greatest mystery?

shutterstock. Bjoern Wylezich/Shutterstock by Usama Kadri, Cardiff University Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 2014 with 239 people on board. Despite extensive search efforts, the final location of the aircraft remains unknown. It has become one of aviation’s greatest mysteries. Our new research explores the possibility of detecting underwater acoustic signals generated by aircraft crashes, such as MH370’s presumed impact, to provide new insights into its fate. Flight MH370 was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished from radar screens. Official investigations suggest it deviated from its planned route, heading southwest over the Indian Ocean. Despite multinational search efforts, including extensive underwater searches along and near the so-called “seventh arc” (the area determined by last communication between the satellite and the plane), the main wreckage has not been found. Only a few pieces of debris washed ashore on western Indian Ocean islands have been confirmed as belonging to MH370. This has left families of the passengers, search teams and the world grappling with unanswered questions. Acoustic analysis Hydrophones are underwater microphones which capture sound waves and pressure changes in the ocean. Such technology has shown promise in detecting pressure signals from various events, including aircraft...