The story of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 is showing signs of fading away. The story continued to be tagged as 'breaking news' even as the story stagnated for the want of sensational information. The first two months of the search produced a couple of false leads—even promising ones did not help pin the location of the flight. Many countries helped with ships of various shapes and sizes, together with a fleet of reconnaissance aircraft that searched not one but three dissimilar regions of the sea in the interim. Given the colossal number of search-and-rescue assets available, everyone naturally had hoped that the find would come sooner rather than later. Unable to discontinue at such a juncture, CNN carried on with the same initial gusto and vigour, to the extent that people were tweeting, “Didn't know aircraft too could be milked like a cow!”

There have been incidents of small aircraft vanishing without a trace but we have never had a 330-tonne wide body jetliner that has remained untraced with for so long. Efforts to trace the single engine Electra flown by Ameila Earhart over the South Pacific is still being pursued on a small scale even after 76 years. We have had one Mi-17(9N-ACU) go missing in the region between Makalu base camp and Lukla since May 31, 2002.The copter had been chartered by a French expedition but that does not absolve the Nepali state of its paramount search responsibilities.

The initial ping

As for the MH370, one surprising aspect has been the lack of any evidence to conclusively assume that it, at worst, lies at the bottom of the sea. But again, we do not know if it is in the South China Sea or the Strait of Malacca or the southern region of the Indian Ocean or even the Bay of Bengal. We would rather have it hijacked than crashed, so long as everyone is safe. But it was the Chinese who claimed to have picked up a 37KHz ping that matched the frequency of emergency locator transmitter (ELT). Other countries involved in the search did not dare reject a Chinese claim outright but it was not taken seriously either.

But this changed suddenly as soon as the Ocean Shield, equipped with state-of-the-art listening technology, heard an unquestionable ping near the same region as reported by the Chinese. This was a conclusive indication that the debris field was almost within grasp. But as the pings died down as predicted, the Australians had no option but to deploy an American-loaned underwater drone (Bluefin-21) for a more focussed search. Even this deployment failed, as the pinger's position was not precisely known as was necessary.

Inconclusive evidence

The massive search in the southern Indian Ocean has now come to an end with the departure of ships and aircraft back to the assisting countries. It is all quiet in the area but the search continues on a greatly reduced scale and out of sight of the constant media glare. Australia says it will not rest until conclusive evidence is found, as they owe it to the families of the missing. All of the data collected by various search missions are being meticulously re-accessed to see if anything was missed. For any search mission, the most dreaded scenario is when they fail to notice the target right under their nose.

It might very well have been so in this case too.

That apart, the western countries must have used the opportunity to access Chinese airborne and deep-sea electronic eavesdropping capabilities as a by-product. Playing the deceit game, the Chinese made no high-handed revelations either. The first 'ping' was heard by a tiny handheld device, nothing elaborate, they implied! It goes without saying that everyone involved in the search was there not purely for the search purpose. While the British deployed their submarine openly in the area, the Americans might have done exactly the same but covertly. Obviously, the Americans would be the most interested of all in learning if the disappearance had anything to do with al-Qaeda.

The search continues

But a sensational new dimension was added recently when Geo Resonance—a Queensland-based company that uses proprietary technology to search large areas, sections of ocean, for specific elements such as metals or other minerals—claimed that it had identified chemical elements and materials with links to a B777 in the Bay of Bengal. The company stands steadfast on its claim and desires that it be thoroughly investigated. It claims that the earlier image of the same spot, a few days before the aircraft went missing, presented no such data. The question is, why would a private company which was in no way employed to look for the aircraft do so and that too, voluntarily? Could it be a kind of attention grabbing exercise? But again, a company having an established name in the related field does not need any of those reasons.

The search for a sunken aircraft or ship is always a difficult proposition as the sea happens to be infinitely bigger than anything we can imagine, be it the biggest manmade aircraft or anything many fold bigger than that. Furthermore, finding an aircraft, flying on its designated track, is difficult, as was discovered in the mid-Atlantic search for AF447 in 2009.

But the MH370 was not on the designated track and we are at loss to know where exactly it went down and why. For that reason alone, the MH370 search looks dreadfully confusing.

I, for one, feel that it will still be found in the Indian Ocean, from the same location the pings came from. But, on the other hand, from the point of sheer fantasy, it will be indeed a huge embarrassment and indictment to all concerned if the Bay of Bengal springs the surprise. In the meantime, the show goes on and the search and suspense for the MH370 continues.

Arjyal writes extensively on aviation