Amateur sleuths monitoring the renewed hunt for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 believe they have detected "unusual" activity from search vessels combing the Indian Ocean.
The latest effort to locate the aircraft, which disappeared nearly 12 years ago en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, began on December 30.
Marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity is conducting the operation alongside the Malaysian Government.
Search teams are expected to spend approximately 55 days surveying some 5,800 square miles of ocean off Australia's coast, deploying specialist equipment including underwater drones and submersible vehicles.
Neither Ocean Infinity nor Malaysian authorities have issued any official updates on progress.
But a French-speaking YouTube channel, Gilchecksix, posted a video on January 5 highlighting what the creator described as peculiar search patterns from one of the vessels.
The observer noted that within the previous 24 hours, a ship had been examining a highly specific zone within the broader search area-behaviour characterised as "quite unusual" for typical recovery operations.
Most intriguingly, the vessel appeared to have returned to the same location equipped with a Remotely Operated Vehicle after an apparent four-day interval following initial scans.
Amateur sleuths monitoring the renewed hunt for MH370 believe they have detected unusual activity
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The YouTuber speculated this gap between the first sweep and the ROV deployment could indicate investigators had identified something warranting closer examination.
One follower added: "The speed of 2.9 knots, while a bit high, does indeed seem compatible with the use of an ROV.
"Let's hope that's the case and that the AUVs have detected something potentially interesting."
According to Air Live, ROV equipment is typically deployed when search teams wish to capture high-resolution imagery of potential points of interest previously identified by Autonomous Underwater Vehicles during initial sweeps.
The YouTuber emphasised that his analysis remained purely speculative and had received no confirmation from either Ocean Infinity or Malaysian officials.
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The vessel had been surveying a highly specific area within the wider search zone in an 'usual' move
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However, he noted the area under scrutiny corresponds with a location previously identified by investigator Jean-Luc Marchand as a potential crash site for the Boeing 777.
The observation has generated considerable interest among those following the nearly 12-year mystery, though official channels have maintained silence on any developments.
Separately, Egypt Air chief engineer Ismail Hamad has offered his own assessment of where the aircraft may lie.
He told The Express he believes MH370 is located in "a corridor just offshore and near the western Australian coast".
Map of areas in which MH370 could have gone missing | GB NEWS
PICTURED: MH370 victims' families. All 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the flight have been presumed dead
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"This is not guesswork, but it is an engineering inevitability if we follow the aviation fundamentals," Mr Hamad declared.
The engineer suggested the wreckage could be found by tracking "the deviation between the magnetic north of the aircraft compass and the true north of the earth."
All 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the flight have been presumed dead since the disappearance.
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