Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Search : New Leads, Technology, And Theories Abound

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 found? Again?

The latest in a long line of hopeful reports, regarding the location of the enigmatic Flight 370, has been released by CNN.

Two ships are expected to arrive in the current search area in coming hours to investigate a “new clue” in Flight 370’s disappearance.

According to the Australian Defence Force, a British Royal Navy survey ship, HMS Echo, will be seeking evidence of 370’s whereabouts on Friday, and the Australian Navy has dispatched a ship, The Ocean Shield, outfitted with special U.S. technology that can detect flight recorder pings, to begin combing the area Thursday night.

CNN also learned that a “big” news conference regarding the lost Malaysia Airlines flight will be held Friday, though details on what it might cover were murky.

The British ship has been searching the area already, hoping for any sign from Flight 370’s data recorder. One hopeful signal was actually received, according to Authorities, but like so many leads, throughout the search for the ill-fated Flight 370, this one too proved a dead end. It’s believed the errant signal could have just been from other ships or whales.

The special U.S. technology aboard The Ocean Shield includes a giant underwater microphone called the TPL-25, that hopes to pick up pings from the flight data recorders. Another piece of equipment is the Bluefin-21, a submersible robot that will comb the ocean floor, searching for any wreckage of Flight 370.

Unfortunately, the special equipment can’t really be put to effective use until something identifying Flight 370 is found. Like a bloodhound without a scent to follow, the special microphone and robot have no specific area to search without some identifying factor of Flight 370.

Malaysia Flight 370 has now been missing for 27 days, the March 8th date of disappearance drifting further and further away. This is particularly torturous and frustrating for those with family and loved ones aboard the missing Malaysia jet and has also led to wild speculation about what happened to Flight 370.

One of the passengers, Philip Wood, has been the focus of one of the more prominent alternative theories about the fate of Flight 370. While some see this as just another Flight 370 Conspiracy Theory, a text and picture reportedly from Philip Wood, have gained a lot of traction among bloggers, on Facebook, and around the web.

The story goes that Wood, a high level IBM executive who really was on Malaysia Flight 370, sent a text from his iPhone more than a week after Flight 370 disappeared. The text reportedly read:

“I have been held hostage by unknown military personnel after my flight was hijacked…I work for IBM and I have managed to hide my cellphone… I have been separated from the rest of the passengers and I am in a cell. My name is Philip Wood. I think I have been drugged as well and cannot think clearly.”

Along with the text came a photo which, even though just a blacked out image, had lots of information attached that iPhone photos automatically include when taken. GPS coordinates of the phone’s location were most interesting and placed it, and presumably Woods, at a U.S. Naval Base on an island called Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

While explanations like this for the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight are generally assumed to be hoaxes, until the mystery is solved, it’s difficult to discount anything.

Hopefully the latest search will finally yield some results and give the families and loved ones of those missing with Malaysia Flight 370 some closure and the start of healing.