A guest post by Dr. Robert Westphal with a working paper answering frequently asked questions about WSPR technology.
People have expressed their concerns in Youtube (VK7HH with approximately 300 comments and others), Reddit and other media platforms. Some comments are very general, other comments are more specific.
The majority of comments demonstrate a lack of knowledge and expertise with regard to this specific topic of WSPR and MH370.
This working paper is designed to help to get a better understanding of the physics, RADAR terminology and specifications, special effects in the interaction of WSPR signals and aircraft. Tests and experiments accomplished or planned with regard to this new subject have been described.
You can download the working paper here
Dr. Robert Westphal was the first person to put forward the idea of using WSPR to detect and track MH370.
He presented his idea at HamSCI, which is the international radio amateur scientific conference, in a paper “Geocaching in the Ionosphere” dated 21st March 2021 which can be downloaded here
I’ve been following your work and MH370 for a while. I really hope it gets found so we can find out what really happened so it doesn’t happen again.
What’s your take on the news that ocean infinity’s search has now been suspended until the end of the year? I was really optimistic when the search resumed but now it feels like a step backwards.
Also – I know there are many theories out there… but do you really think this was the act of the Captain? Based on what was on his flight simulator ?
@Lee,
Welcome to the blog!
I find it quite bizarre that the MH370 Families announce “The MH370 ‘No-Find No Fee’ Search Contract between Malaysia and Ocean Infinity has been signed” on 27th March 2025 and Armada 7806 suspends their mapping work in the MH370 search area on 28th March 2025, just one day later.
@Duncan observed: “So it looks like the mainstream media have belatedly grasped that we have a counterintuitive – verging on bizarre – situation where Ocean Infinity search when they don’t have a contract, and stop searching immediately they do have a contract.”
There are around 150 books written about MH370, each with a theory of what happened.
I don’t think any of the theories would hold up in a court of law.
I ran a survey of MH370 analysts asking them to score the the various theories as follows: “Strongly Agree”, “Agree”, “Neutral”, “Disagree” or “Strongly Disagree” …
A1 – ZS Murder-Suicide Captain to the End
A2 – ZS Murder-Suicide Captain just after FMT
B1 – FH Murder-Suicide Co-Pilot to the End
B2 – FH Murder-Suicide Co-Pilot just after FMT
C1 – Hijacker Murder-Suicide Pilot to the End
C2 – Hijacker Murder-Suicide Pilot just after FMT
D1 – Lithium-Ion Battery Fire in Cargo
D2 – Lithium-Ion Battery Fire in Cabin
D3 – Electrical Fire in Cockpit
D4 – Electrical Fire in Main Equipment Center
E1 – In-Flight Slow Decompression
E2 – In-Flight Rapid Decompression
F1 – Single Failure, Hypoxia, Ghost Flight after FMT
F2 – Multiple Failures, Hypoxia, Ghost Flight after FMT
G – Other (Please Specify …………………….)
The experts were quite divided:
A1 24%
A2 19%
F2 15%
D3 11%
F1 8%
D4 6%
E2 6%
No one selected G – Other (Please Specify …………………….)
The 150 books do include a number of additional scenarios including MH370 was hijacked or remotely diverted by the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, a conspiracy of a number of governments, UFOs, Aliens, …
We need to find the wreckage of MH370 and recover the data on the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder as well as forensic evidence of who was in the cockpit to solve this mystery.
For the record, I would have selected “G” or “none of the above,” but i was not asked
@BG370
G – Other (Please Specify …………………….)
Something none of the experts thought of, and none of the above. We will know if and when the 370 underwater debris field is found.
@BG370,
You make a very good point.
Your scenario is very possible. Something that the experts wouldn’t come up with and something not typical for an aircraft incident.
This is a true “Other”, where no one can specify, because no one knows exactly what happened or conceive of what might have happened.
It is not typical, when an aircraft has a technical problem or a fire, that it carries on flying for 7 hours 37 minutes until fuel exhaustion.
It is not typical, when an aircraft is hijacked, that there are no demands made to the authorities.
It is not typical, when an aircraft is diverted by a suicide case, that the aircraft is not crashed into the nearest obstacle.
It is not typical, that a modern aircraft with 3 VHF radios, 2 HF radios and satellite communications fails to make an emergency call.
It is not typical, that with radars, transponders, satellite tracking and collision avoidance systems, that a modern airliner just disappears.
Hi Richard,
Is it possible the pilot in command knew Inmarsat, Lockheed, Thales learned from Air France 447 2009 crash and he tried to confuse this data logging of BTO/BFO by making unnecessary turns at the right time ?
According to WSPR data there were many unnecessary turns, at the exact time, when the regular – periodic – 1 hour satellite log-in was due.
All of these unnecessary turns around the Arcs, did compromise his fuel reserve to travel further south. Especially if we look into the original plan to “redirect” MH150 which had more fuel on board and planned to go even further south, according to the pilot in command home flight simulation PC.
If WSPR data is correct the pilot in command knew about what Inmarsat, Lockheed, Thales learned from Air France 447 and therefore he did sacrifice travel range to disguise the final destination. These extra turns around each and every Arc must be done deliberately. Without the unnecessary extra turns, he could travel south a lot more, so there must be a reason for these turns.
Pilot in command showcased multiple times way above normal civilian pilot knowledge about aircraft technical details and system operations, military radars, processes…
Also there are extra turns according to WSPR tracking when satcom phone dial attempts were made to reach MH370 as I recall from the study
Maybe the deep dive at the 7th Arc was to fool Inmarsat tracking to mimic the plane is uncontrollably crashing into the ocean? Then take it out from dive a bit later and glide an extra 40-70 nautical miles away from the predicted crash point to ditch ?
@Zsolt,
Welcome to the blog!
I disagree that the turns were unnecessary, they were planned and always to a waypoint, but never to join a flight route.
The objective was not to maximise fuel usage, the objective was to hide the aircraft in a location where it would never be found.
You are correct that MH150 was the original target and the model flight used on Captain Zaharie Shah’s home flight simulator.
Captain Zaharie Shah had expert knowledge of the radar coverage and flight operations in the region.
Your hypothesis is plausible.
Jeff Wise’s contact suggested that OI doesn’t plan to search the area identified by your WSPR work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFqeKZWvzeo
I find it disappointing that OI is so secretive about its plans for the search. I also find it odd that it made the journey to the area when it knew it had “prior commercial commitments”. Surely the company was aware that it was unlikely to find the wreckage in such a short period of time. How was it financially viable to send the ship and crew there? It doesn’t add up.
@Graham,
Why did Ocean Infinity invite Prof. Simon Maskell, my co-author on WSPR papers and leader of a team at Liverpool University researching WSPR to their proposal presentation meeting with the Malaysian authorities, if they were not planning to search the area identified by the WSPR work?
I have no idea. I certainly hope OI does incorporate it into its search!
Zaharie Shah couldn’t have known about WSPR — it’s similar to murders that could only be solved years later through DNA technology. Ocean Infinity made a major mistake by not searching the WSPR area first. Only the WSPR technology is sufficiently precise and conclusive. All other potential crash sites rely on many assumptions and are significantly weaker.
Comment *Hi Richard ! Is It possible that the fireball hit the plane and caused electric chaos in cockpit and cabin which caused that autopilot took control, any electric equipment stopped working, landing wheels went down and the plane flew about 7 hours without any other control and endly landed to the sea so smoothly that it broked very little.
@Major Psy,
Welcome to the blog!
Obviously, Captain Zaharie Shah could not known bout WSPR being used to detect and track aircraft back in 2014, as our work only started in 2021.
Ocean Infinity have not started searching, they have only filled in gaps in the survey work to complete the bathymetric data they require for future search operations. This is a very logical approach, which I fully support.
@Raimo Heikkinen,
Welcome to the blog!
Anything is possible, but the question is, was it likely that MH370 was hit by a meteorite ?
About once a year, a large asteroid hits Earth’s atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface.
Every 2,000 years or so, a large meteorite hits the Earth and causes significant damage to the area.
In my view, the chance that MH370 was hit by a meteorite is negligible. The chances that MH370 continued to fly for up to 7 hours 37 minutes following a meteorite hit are zero.
Hi Richard ! What do you think about thunderball or lightning if there were thunderstorms in that area where MH 370 flew that night ? We know that these weather conditions, especially lightnings are not mostly dangerous to aeroplane but if thunderball hit MH 370 and electricity went out of control as air condition and cabin airpressure collapsed. In that case oxygen ended and crew and passengers losed their ability to breath. At the same time in cockpit captain decided to return back to the nearest flightstation and turned the plane left through Malaca to Indian Ocean. Because all electricity and navigation system had gone he had to drived the plane with hands and tried to keep it flying so long as he could and finally when gas ended the plane landed to sea like captain Sullivan did in Hudson river. The place is below Inmarsat Pleiades where that satellite found debris first on the Indian Ocean.
@Raimo Heikkinen,
Your scenario is not plausible. for the following reasons:
The average aircraft gets hit by lightning once per year. Aircraft are designed to withstand a direct hit by lightning.
There were no thunderstorms or lightning in the Indian Ocean on the night of 7th/8th March 2014.
There was a high pressure zone at 1022 mB (or hPa), with pressure increasing in the MH370 crash area.
The wind was 15 to 18 knots, which is a moderate to fresh breeze.
There was broken cloud with scattered showers possible.
The surface temperature was 21°C (70°F) with a relative humidity of 80% to 84%.
There were moderate waves 2 m to 3 m high, with a pronounced long form, with white horses and some spray in the air.
The emergency oxygen for passengers lasts 20 minutes, which is time to get to a safe altitude.
The emergency oxygen for the crew lasts much longer and for the pilot for the whole 7 hours 37 minutes flight.
There was no attempt at an emergency landing at any of the airports in the vicinity of the diversion or on the route back across Malaysia and out into the Malacca Strait.
The aircraft has a RAM turbine system that supplies essential power even when both engines and the auxiliary power unit fail.
The Pléiades satellite pictures (from the French Space Agency CNES, not Inmarsat) did not show any conclusive evidence of debris being from MH370.
Richard
Based on every detail and information you have.. do you have confidence the plane will be found?
@Lee,
The more data we have. the greater my confidence becomes, that we will find MH370.
I had an email yesterday announcing more official data.
You can never be 100% confident, but I am over 90% confident that MH370 will be found one day. It might just take longer, than we would like.
Hi Richard
Hope you are well, firstly thank you for all the time and effort you have taken in keeping us all up to date with the search pf MH370
I really hope the aeroplane can be located and all the questions can be answered, such as the following, now it has been highly thought that the pilot acted in a murder suicide mission given the possibility of political aspects and the gathered evidence form a flight simulator from the pilots home computer, what has got me wondering is if the above is to be true, then why would the plane be flown to such a remote part of the ocean, where there is the possibility of never locating the wreckage, it would seem to me that the pilot of whomever was in control did not want the plane to be found, and if this were the case then is it possible the information gathered from the simulator was that a possible red herring.
Would like to know your thoughts on this
@John Mc,
Welcome to the blog!
I do not believe the information from the home flight simulator was a red herring, as it fits the initial flight path and fuel quantity of a real world flight that Captain Zaharie Shah conducted shortly after, which was MH150 to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The intent was to divert the aircraft to a remote and not obvious location, where it would be difficult to find. The perpetrator did not want to be found out, nor bring shame to his family and friends.