The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 is one of the biggest aviation mysteries in the world. This flight departed from Kuala Lumpur on its way to Beijing in 2014 but the flight suddenly disappeared from the Radars, no one could figur...
Some scientists and investigators thought to use these communication data from the satellites to approximate the location of the plane. They thought that when the satellites received the communication, the satellite would have moved its antenna towards the direction of the plane. So they took the angle of the antenna of the satellite to measure it and make calculations. (figure in the picture above). As we know, exact location of the plane couldn't be determined with the help of the satellite, but it could be estimated with the help of it. As of the estimation, the aircraft can be anywhere between the 7 circles.
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The 7 Arcs
The plane tried to establish communication with the satellite 7 times. That's why you can see 7 different circles in white colour in the image in the picture. These are known as "Satellite Handshakes" . Every circle shows the time when the plane tried to communicate with the satellite. The last circle or the 7th circle shows the latest time when the plane tried to communicate with the satellite. The last point where the aircraft could have been. And it was really surprising because this circle was Enormous. It covers a lot of areas. From Kazakhstan to China, Indonesia to Australia and covering a vast ocean. The plane could be anywhere in this circle. Or perhaps further than this. This was the last point it tried to communicate. After this, investigators did more calculations with the speed of the plane, with the remaining fuel of the plane and then estimated that the plane could be in this shaded area of circle.
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Most possible crash site
This Arc is famously known as the 7th arc. This 7th arc is 2,000 km west of Australia and occupies a large expanse of area. It was in such a part of the ocean that hasn't been explored much. By April 2014, the search operations in the surface of the ocean were stopped because it was not fruitful. Since the plane had crashed, it would've sunk into the ocean. It wouldn't be floating on the ocean surface and only deep ocean searches were conducted. At this point in time, this was the largest and the most expensive operation conducted. 3 years later and after spending $160m, They called of the operation. And the operation was a failure. But in July 2015 the first debris were found in the Reunion Islands. This island is located is the East of Madagascar. The part that was found, was a flaperon of that aircraft which was confirmed by Boeing a month later. Which proved the aircraft had crashed.
