For eight years now, the families of the missing MH370 have been trying to find out what happened to the 239 people who boarded in Kuala Lumpur but never arrived in Beijing, their destination. The tracks that remain to try to understand what happened are today scattered or laborious.
From our correspondent in Kuala Lumpur,
This has been their only watchword for eight years, whether they are Chinese, Malaysian or French, they say it in all languages, research must continue. ” The search must go on”, we read almost systematically at the end of the posts of the Facebook group which brings together these families scattered around the globe. But past this certainty, big questions remain: where and how to look for the MH370, from whom can we get answers?
In Malaysia, where the official investigation closed in 2018 did not learn much, families are particularly focused on Ocean Infinity. This American underwater mapping firm assured this year, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 8th anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, that it could, aided by ever more advanced technologies, to resume his research undertaken in the Indian Ocean in 2018. But these had not made it possible to find anything, and even today, the strategic place where it would be necessary to launch underwater excavations is not the subject to no consensus.
For Grace Subathirai Nathan, whose mother was aboard MH370, however, Ocean Infinity remains “ the greatest hope today. It is one of the most technologically advanced companies for this kind of research “, she develops. And while this private actor is resurfacing today in the families’ tireless quest for truth, the attention of the authorities remains ever more difficult to capture, especially since the arrival of Covid-19, notes Grace Subathirai Nathan. : “ It’s even harder in times of pandemic to pressure official actors to ask for new research. »
In the past, however, the motivations for the underwater searches carried out to find MH370 have sometimes been questioned, first about the futile searches carried out in the Indian Ocean and piloted by Australia. “Australian research, which was useless in the investigation of this mystery, however made it possible to produce detailed maps of the underwater relief in a hitherto unexplored area, very useful information for the industry. oil company as well as deep-sea fishing companies”, reminded in 2018 Florence De Changy, RFI correspondent in Hong Kong and author of two works on the MH370.
Investigation still in progress in France…
On the side of Ocean Infinity, which sometimes looks like a good Samaritan in the MH370 case, the press was also able to recall that this company is also renowned for using its cutting-edge technology to find wrecks and treasures. During the first research in 2018, which allowed the company to see its name known around the world, Point wrote so : ” the Seabed Constructor (ship of Ocean Infinity) suddenly turned off its transponder (and therefore disappeared from the radars), before reappearing three days later, without giving any explanation. The event did not escape spectators who constantly observe the ship’s tracking on GPS applications. According to the Australian press, this disappearance occurred near old shipwrecks likely to hide buried treasures. The episode helped lend credence to the thesis that Ocean Infinity is conducting a treasure hunt under the guise of its primary mission. »
In France, there is no question of Pharaonic underwater excavations, but an investigation, carried out by the research section of the air transport gendarmerie, is still in progress. ” It is the only professional and independent investigation in which I have confidence. says Ghyslain Wattrelos, a French father who had his wife and two children aboard MH370. ” The investigators do an extraordinary job, they go through everything, he says. The only problem is that a lot of data is not accessible to them and each time they ask for something it takes months or even years. For example, they have been discussing with the United States Embassy in France for seven years to see the FBI (in contact with the Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur in the weeks following the disappearance), it has been seven years since the FBI refuse. »
For a long time, Ghyslain Wattrelos was also able to put his hopes in the public and unprecedented speaking of a witness who would have information helping to understand what happened. But this hypothesis is no longer the one he favors today: Of course, I always hope that, one day, someone who knows something will speak, but I believe in it less and less. Look for example at the Ajaccio-Nice Caravelle crash (in 1968), the Ustica tragedy (Itavia flight 870 crash in 1980), we still don’t officially know what happened. So this scenario for me, it is less and less likely. »