The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200/ER vanished after heading southwest over the Indian Ocean. Photo / Getty Images, File
A noted aviation expert has said he has found the likely location of the doomed aeroplane MH370.
If he's right it would solve the eight-year-old mystery of the whereabouts of the aircraft and its 239 passengers and crew, all of whom are presumed to have perished.
The findings have also reinforced a "horrifying" theory — said the senior officer in charge of the initial search — of the missing plane's final hours.
But the authorities are yet to be persuaded to tackle a new search mission.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, several hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, bound for Beijing, China.
The plane headed northeast towards China but not long after takeoff it abruptly changed direction in the Gulf of Thailand and headed back across the Malaysian peninsula. It then plotted a course southwest into the remote depths of the Indian Ocean.
It's thought to have crashed 2000km off the coast of Western Australia.
The search for MH370 covered 120,000 square kilometres. But to no avail.
British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey has conducted a painstaking examination of the anomalies in radio signals from that fateful night. He has said that's enabled him to zero in on a new crash zone.
"In my view, there's no reason why we shouldn't be planning for a new search," Godfrey told Australia's Channel 9 on Sunday.
The breakthrough discovery claim came after an analysis using Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) technology – this is effectively an invisible radio wave similar to trip-wires that record anything disturbing or passing through the waves.
However, experts have expressed serious doubts as to whether historical WSPR data can be used to track MH370.
Godfrey told the 60 Minutes programme that 160 signals were disturbed over the Indian Ocean that night, disturbances likely caused by an aeroplane.
Only one other aircraft was anywhere near MH370 over the ocean and Godfrey said that plane was at least an hour away.
That meant the disturbances were most likely caused by the Malaysian jet allowing its flight to be tracked as well as its probable final resting place.
He has said he can narrow a search area down to just 300sq km, which could be looked at in just a few weeks. That includes some areas already searched and others that were never looked at during the initial rescue effort.
"With this very difficult terrain it is possible to miss wreckage," he said.
"When you're going through 120,000 square kilometres you get one chance, one pass of each point. With 300 square kilometres, you can have several passes and from different angles, so it's possible."
Godfrey told 60 Minutes that his research has uncovered another aspect of the flight and its captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
Far from heading in a straight line into the Indian Ocean, Godfrey has claimed MH370 did a number of 360-degree turns over the sea – almost like holding patterns before an aircraft lands at a busy airport. That would mean the "ghost flight" theory – that the plane was on autopilot and the passengers and crew were incapacitated – may not be accurate.
"This is strange to me. When you're in the remotest part of the Indian Ocean trying to lose an aircraft why would you enter a holding pattern for 20 minutes?
"(The captain) may have been communicating with the Malaysian government, he may have been checking whether he was being followed, he may have simply wanted time to make up his mind," said Godfrey.
If correct, the curious course of the Boeing 777 over the Indian Ocean gives credence to the theory that the captain deliberately flew the plane into oblivion.
Peter Foley was the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's (ATSB) director of operations for the MH370 search.
Asked on the programme by 60 Minutes' reporter Sarah Abo if the most likely scenario was that the captain was behind a mass murder incident, Foley said "Yes, by a wide margin. It's horrifying".
Nevertheless, Foley said some of Godfrey's conclusions needed more scrutiny.
"There's certainly merit in exploring new avenues.
"I think the jury is still out on Richard's work, but let's hope he is onto something."
The ATSB described Godfrey as "credible" but has not launched a new investigation.
"The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has not had a formal involvement in any search for the missing aircraft MH370 since the conclusion of the first underwater search in 2017, has not recommenced a search for the aircraft, and notes that any decision to conduct further searches would be a matter for the Government of Malaysia," ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said in a statement.
"The ATSB is aware of the work of Mr Richard Godfrey and acknowledges that he is a credible expert on the subject of MH370, but the ATSB does not have the technical expertise to, and has not been requested to, review his 'MH370 Flight Path' paper and workings.
"As such the ATSB cannot offer an assessment of the validity of Mr Godfrey's work using WSPR data.
"The ATSB does acknowledge that Mr Godfrey's work recommends a search zone for MH370, a significant portion of which covers an area searched during the ATSB-led underwater search.
"When the ATSB was made aware that Mr Godfrey's zone incorporates an area of ocean surveyed during the ATSB-led search, out of due diligence the ATSB requested Geoscience Australia review the data it held from the search to re-validate that no items of interest were detected in that area."
"The ATSB expects that review to be finalised in coming weeks, the results from which will be made public on the ATSB's website.
"The ATSB acknowledges the importance of locating the aircraft to provide answers and closure to the families of those who lost loved ones.
"The ATSB remains an interested observer in all efforts to find the missing aircraft."
Mitchell reiterated that any decision to conduct further searches for MH370 would be a matter for the Government of Malaysia and that the ATSB was not aware of any requests to the Australian Government from Malaysia to support a new search for the missing aircraft.
Godfrey's insights have led a grieving wife who lost her husband in the MH370 crash to now believe the incident was murder, not a mechanical failure.
The remains of Danica Weeks' husband, New Zealander Paul Weeks, have never been found.
Weeks told Sky News that after years of thinking the plane went down because of mechanical failure she now believes it was murder.
"I was so staunch about saying it wasn't the pilot," she said.
"But now I have to throw all of that out after nearly eight years [since the disappearance] and three years of searching [for the plane, by the authorities].
"I never believed it was the pilot. Unfortunately, Richard Godfrey has said that he believes with this point that the pilot was in control. And look, it makes sense that we've searched for a ghost plane, haven't found it. So maybe we have to step forward and … search on that basis now."
Godfrey said a new search would only take a few million dollars.
"I'm sure this mystery will be solved and hopefully it will be solved later this year."
Residential areas in both countries have suffered from deadly strikes in the conflict.