Ship searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanishes for three days

A family member of a passenger aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing in 2014 reacts during a protest outside the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, July 29, 2016. The hat reads "Pray for MH370" REUTERS/Thomas Peter - S1BETSHOHBAA

The mystery surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight is showing no sign of an end. In the most recent episode related to the MH370, the ship that was searching for the missing flight disappeared for three days under mysterious circumstances.

As per a report in The Guardian, Seabed Constructor, which has been looking for the missing plane, turned off its monitoring system for some unexplained reasons. The ship re-appeared outside the search area after three days when it was on its way to a refuelling stop at the Australian port of Fremantle.

The ship belongs to the US-based company Ocean Infinity that was hired by the Malaysian government to search for the MH370 flight that has been missing since 2014. The ship, which reportedly started its search operations on 22nd January disappeared suddenly on Thursday after it turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) with no explanation only to reappear later outside the search area.

While no explanation is being provided by the Malaysian government or Ocean Infinity about the cause, questions are being raised about the ship’s activities during the three days. This included an allegation that the ship was searching for the lost treasures from the wreck of a Peruvian ship called SV Inca.

However, a more plausible explanation was given by Kevin Rupp, a precision machinist. According to him the ship may have switched off the signals to prevent unwanted attention. “Seabed Constructor would have to sit still in one place for a long period of time and this would be very noticeable to those of us watching through our AIS tracking apps ... I believe they may have turned the AIS transmitter to low power mode to prevent us from speculating that they had found something and causing undue distress for the next of kin,” he was quoted saying.

For the time being, the Malaysian authorities have confirmed that no clue about the missing aircraft has been found till now. However, kin of the missing passengers are not impressed and want greater accountability. “There are no journalists and no family members on board the search ship. I wish there were some ... We watch on in good faith. I hope ongoing official disclosure is of such a high order that there is little room for speculation, controversy or a whiff of conspiracy,” KS Narendran, a relative of a missing passenger was quoted as saying.