AN independent investigator looking into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 believes “there are better than even odds” that the crash site of the jetliner has been found, British news site Mirror reports. 

Victor Iannello said he believes the airliner that went missing on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing can be found within 100 nautical miles of the coordinates S34.2342 and E93.7875 on the South Indian Ocean floor.

Iannello had assisted a previous Australian-led search effort and is part of a team of four independent experts investigating the mystery.

“I won’t speak for the other three authors, but I believe there are better than even odds that the plane is within 100 nautical miles of our last estimated point,” Iannello told the Mirror.

“Portions of the recommended search area were already searched by GO Phoenix and Ocean Infinity.

“Other the portions that were previously searched, some of the data is either missing or of low quality due to the challenging terrain of the sea floor.”

Iannello was referring to vessels involved in search efforts done in 2015 and 2018. 

He said another search should be done in the recommended area  and that existing sonar data of the area should be re-examined to ensure debris had not been misclassified as a natural feature.

Iannello and his colleagues – Bobby Ulich, Richard Godfrey and Andrew Banks – had looked at 2,300 possible flight paths and data from military and civilian radar, fuel and drift analysis of MH370 debris found thousands of kilometers away to identify a probable crash site.

They have published a technical report to guide the next search on the floor of the Southern Indian Ocean.

The experts believe MH370 flew 185km west of Banda Aceh, on Sumatra, and had its  systems switched off to avoid tracking.

They suspect MH370 eventually crashed 4,345km away in the Indian Ocean, west of Australia.

Iannello, an engineer and CEO of Radiant Physics, said Ocean Infinity is best-placed to lead the next search.

“Based on the contractual conditions of the last search, a new search would be contingent on both the willingness of a private company to assume the financial risk of not finding the debris field and the willingness of Malaysia to offer a reward if the debris field is found.

“The only private company that I am aware of that has the expertise, resources, and willingness to consider this arrangement is Ocean Infinity.”

Iannello is a member of the Independent Group (IG), the leading non-government analysis team looking into the disappearance of MH370. 

The group helped Australian officials searching for the missing aircraft. – October 22, 2020.