The Search for MH 370

The search for MH370 represents an imperitive challenge, not just to solve the mystery of the missing aircraft, but also to bring some closure and justice to the families and friends of the 239 people on board.

The evolution of the search has exposed a system of agencies that is uncoordinated, uncooperative and opaque. Government, industry and other responsible authorities have sought to protect legal, diplomatic and corporate reputations rather than expiditing the search. Information flow has suffered as a result so the families and public have been left in the dark.

Thre are some important lessons to be learned here regarding the Technology, Philosphy, and Management of searching for things. The lessons apply to almost any research endeavour, but are particularly appliccable to mineral explaration.

Amongst the failings, the search agencies have refused to make use of Crowd Sourcing. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the search, but not one official agency has established a website to make use of the enormous pool of talent that is out there and willing to help. An organic crowd sourcing effort has evolved in spite of this, but it is being held back by agencies intentionally withholding, hiding, obfuscating and denying primary data. My thoughts on this and a potential solution are here.

I am one of the crowd. As an exploration geologist my task is to sweep together pieces of questionable evidence from diverse spatial data sets and try to make sense of it in some way that will lead me to something that is buried or that others have missed. So pehaps, I have something to contribute in this case. I have been collecting fragmentary pieces of evidence that have been trickling out into the public domain since the dissapearance and using GIS software (MapInfo and Discover) to compile and assess them with a critical eye. Some of the data and conclusions I have compiled are here.