The ship searching for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has docked south of Perth after mysteriously disappearing for three days.
The Seabed Constructor turned off its transponder in the Indian Ocean, prompting speculation that crew had found the plane’s wreckage but wanted to be sure of payment before revealing it to authorities.
The ship came back online on Tuesday and today docked at Henderson, but still its Texas-based operator, Ocean Infinity, has refused to explain the blackout.
The company only said the ship will be docked for a short time before continuing the search.
The Seabed Constructor (pictured) left the Port of Durban and began searching for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 on January 2
It comes after a leading aviation expert predicted a disaster like MH370 will happen again soon.
David Stupples, a professor of electronic and radio systems at City, University of London, said: ‘You can’t say MH370 won’t ever happen again, because it will.’
He was referring to the fact that international requirements for new planes to broadcast their locations every minute don’t come in until 2021.
‘Until 2040 or 2050, there’s going to be a large number of aircraft flying around that don’t have that tracking system fitted,’ he said.
Currently some airlines including Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Qantas Airways and Qatar Airways track planes every 15 mintues.
But still a jet travelling at 575mph that has been missing for 15 minutes requires a search zone of 170,000 square kilometres – an area the size of Florida.
This makes finding any survivors very unlikely.
MH370 vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 2014 with 239 people on board.
It disappeared after its aircraft communications, addressing and reporting system (Acars) was switched off less than an hour after taking off.
On 2 January, The Constructor left the Port of Durban to begin its search on a ‘no find, no fee’ deal.
It planned to use sonar scanning equipment to find the aircraft, after a multinational search cost Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities $200million.
The Malaysian Government, will pay the US company Ocean Infinity more than $55million if it finds the plane within 90 days.
The vessel was tasked with searching the zone aviation specialists say is most likely to be where MH370’s fuel reserves were exhausted, dubbed the 7th Arc
The freelance boat’s designated search area was located just outside the 120 square kilometres previously scoured along the 7th Arc – the zone aviation specialists say is most likely to be where MH370’s fuel reserves were exhausted.
No sign of the plane was found and an Australian-led hunt – the largest in aviation history – was called off in January last year.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) attempted to find missing aircraft MH370 for two years. A private company has renewed its pledged to locate the wreckage on a ‘no find, no fee’ basis
The plane vanished after its aircraft communications, addressing and reporting system (Acars) was switched off less than an hour after taking off
The Constructor is not the first to comb over this patch of ocean.
Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery and Havila Harmony have all attempted to find the presumably downed plane.
Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.
Each ship’s progress was tracked meticulously by aviation enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists.
Keeping tabs on the Constructor has proved more challenging: the vessel went dark on Wednesday, causing massive speculation.
One online user speculated the vessel it had found MH370 but planned to keep its location secret until it had confirmed its government-funded fee.
Another speculated Ocean Infinity had failed to find the missing Boeing 777 and had instead detoured towards the wreckage of what is believed to be the S.V Inca – a Peruvian transport ship that vanished on the way to Sydney more than 100 years ago.
Four kilometers inside the 7th Arc, the century-old ship was spotted by one of the Constructor’s predecessors, the Havila Harmony, which mistook the shipwreck for the lost plane’s fuselage.
A multinational search cost Australian, Malaysian and Chinese taxpayers $200million. This piece of aircraft debris discovered on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania
MH370 was tracked by amateur aviation enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists alike
Inevitably, on its discovery there were chatters about lost treasure and Inca gold.
The Constructor’s involvement in this new chapter in the aircraft’s bizarre disappearance has not be to everyone’s liking.
Aviation journalist Jeff Wise was critical of the new search in his blog.
As a former member of the independent group of investigators tasked with advising the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in its search for MH370, Wise is personally invested in the case.
‘As I write this, the scan of the innermost section of the Primary Search Area has been completed, but the assessment has not yet been released.
‘However, the fact that Seabed Constructor has moved on to another area suggests that probably nothing was found there, either.
‘A big caveat: we don’t really know how long it takes the search team to assess the data collected during each pass.
When the Constructor turned its AIS back on last night it was heading for Perth where it is scheduled to dock at Fremantle on February 8.
With little to no information coming from the ship, it remains unclear what, if anything, it has found.
Seabed Constructor is expected to dock in Freemantle to refuel and top up supplies before returning to the search area.