Malaysia’s government have agreed to let Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to resume the search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, 11 years after it disappeared
A Texas-based marine robotics company have been given final approval to begin a new search for missing Flight MH370 after it vanished 11 years ago during a flight to Beijing, with a new part of the Indian Ocean set to be searched.
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was carrying 239 people – including 227 passengers and 12 crew – when it disappeared from radar shortly after departing Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed. While experts do not appear to be any closer to finding the wreckage or find out what happened, that could change in the near future.
Malaysia’s government agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation. The search will resume at a new 5,800-square-mile site in the ocean, transport minister Anthony Loke said in a statement on Wednesday.
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“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,” Mr Loke said. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70million (£53.8 million) only if the wreckage is discovered.
The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search. The American company had searched for the MH370 wreckage in 2018 but the search ended unsuccessfully after three months.
Ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyse data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.
The firm has already deployed a search vessel to the target zone 1,200 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia, reports Daily Telegraph. The vessel was sent to scan the area to capitalise on better conditions before winter arrives.
The vessel – a state-of-the art, 250-foot-long ship called Armada 78 06 – is equipped with 3D-imagers, sonars, lasers and cameras. Mr Loke added his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but did not provide details on the terms.
Missing flight MH370 has become one of the most widely-speculated aviation mysteries as several multi-national rescue operations have produced no conclusive results, with costs climbing into hundreds of millions of pounds. An initial search spanned three million square kilometres above the water and more than 120,000 square kilometres under the sea.
Over the past decade, there has been endless speculation about what happened to the doomed flight. Australian authorities searched for almost three years for the missing airliner but no wreckage was found.
Debris presumed to be from the aircraft has washed up in the years since its disappearance, with some confirmed pieces of MH370 appearing along the coast of Africa, and on some Indian Ocean islands. Relatives of passengers and others who were on the flight have not given up, with many demanding action from the organisations involved in constructing and flying the plane.
Passengers on board the plane were from more than a dozen countries, with just under two-thirds Chinese nationals. Passengers from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, India, France, Ukraine, the US and several other nations were also on the aircraft.
