A US-based deep sea exploration company has given fresh hope to solving the decade-long MH370 mystery, saying it has the capability to carry out the most exhaustive search yet for the missing aircraft.
March 8 marked the 10-year anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished from radar after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.
There were 239 people on board, including six Australians.
60 Minutes/Nine. Credit: News Corp Australia
US-based company Ocean Infinity led a search in 2018 but could not find a trace of the aircraft on the floor of the Indian Ocean.
But Tony Romeo, the CEO of Deep Sea Vision, told 60 Minutes on Sunday he believed his company was capable of making the breakthrough.
The company is planning to send one of its underwater drones, called the Hugin 6000, down to the ocean floor to search for the missing aircraft.
“It flies at 50 metres above the seafloor, and it just goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,” Mr Romeo told 60 Minutes on Sunday.
“Big eyes, looking at everything it can see, sucks and stores data, comes back up to the surface, we pluck a thumb drive into it, pull the data out, and we watch it on a computer exactly what it looked at.”
The company made worldwide headlines earlier this year when Mr Romeo claimed the company had found Amelia Earhart’s plane on the Pacific Ocean floor.
Mr Romeo described the company’s technology as being “unbelievable” and just short of being able to read a credit card number on the seafloor.
He said the company’s modified drones could scour four times the area covered in previous attempts to find MH370.
Asked if he thought he could find MH370, Mr Romeo said: “I think we can.
“I feel like we’ve proved our credibility, we’ve proved our competence,” he told 60 Minutes.
“We’ve proved our ability to take equipment and use novel techniques.”
Deep Sea Visions is preparing to submit a search proposal to the Malaysian government.
“And I believe that the Malaysian government wants answers,” Mr Romeo said.
“I refuse to believe that they do not want a huge accident, a huge crash like this to go unresolved. It just isn’t fair. It wouldn’t be fair to the families.”