Expert claims to have found Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 wreckage on Google Maps

29 May 2024, 12:56 | Updated: 29 May 2024, 13:06

The wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been found on Google Maps nine years after the plane disappeared, an expert has claimed.

Technology expert Ian Wilson believes he has identified the wreckage of the ill-fated flight in the Cambodian jungle on Google Maps.

Mr Wilson said: "Measuring the Google sighting, you're looking at around 69 metres, but there looks to be a gap between the tail and the back of the plane. It's just slightly bigger, but there's a gap that would probably account for that."

The Boeing 777 plane carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path and is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

The technology expert believes the remains of the MH370 are scattered across one of the most remote parts of Cambodia.

At the time, an expensive multinational government search failed to turn up any clues, although several pieces of debris washed ashore on the East African coast and Indian Ocean islands.

A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing, but the tragedy sparked moves to bolster aviation safety.

Despite continued efforts, including a 1,500 report, the exact location of the aircraft still remains unknown.

Read more: MH370 mystery could be solved as underwater search expert vows state-of-the-art new hunt for wreckage

Read more: MH370 flight documents reveal last-minute additions made to aircraft as pilot 'intentionally made it disappear'

Discussing the process of using Google Earth, Mr Wilson told the Mirror: “I was on there [Google Earth], a few hours here, a few hours there. If you added it up I spent hours searching for places a plane could have gone down. And in the end, as you can see, the place where the plane is. It is literally the greenest, darkest part you can see."

The Bureau of Aircraft Investigations Archives has not ruled out the 2018 ‘sighting’ on Google Maps as the missing MH370.

It comes after Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim pledged to reopen the investigation into the vanished aircraft, as he told a press conference in Melbourne: “We have taken the position that if there is a compelling case, evidence that it needs to be re-opened, we’re certainly happy to reopen. Whatever needs to be done must be done.”

In March, the families of the passengers on board the doomed plane were given fresh hope after Malaysia's transport minister Anthony Loke said Texas-based Ocean Infinity has proposed another "no find, no fee" basis to scour the seabeds, expanding from the site where it first searched in 2018.

At a remembrance event for those on board the plane, he said: "The government is steadfast in our resolve to locate MH370. We are waiting for Ocean Infinity to provide suitable dates, and I will meet them anytime that they are ready to come to Malaysia.”