The Malaysian government has finalized an agreement with deep-sea exploration firm Ocean Infinity to restart the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook announced on Wednesday.
Renewed efforts to locate the missing plane
The search operation, set to begin in a newly identified 15,000-square-kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean, will follow a “no find, no fee” arrangement, Loke stated. If Ocean Infinity successfully locates the wreckage, the company will receive a $70 million payment from the Malaysian government.
“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the MH370 passengers,” Loke said in a statement.
A decade-old aviation mystery
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, disappeared on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane’s sudden disappearance remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
The Malaysian government had previously granted Ocean Infinity permission to search for the aircraft in 2018, but the effort was unsuccessful. The latest agreement comes after the company presented new search data to authorities in December, prompting renewed interest in the mission.
Previous and upcoming search operations
Before Ocean Infinity’s involvement, a multinational underwater search led by Malaysia, Australia, and China covered 120,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean but failed to find the aircraft. However, data from satellite connections with the plane and ocean drift patterns have since refined search locations.
Ship tracking data indicated that a vessel contracted for the operation had already been deployed to the search zone last month, even before the agreement was finalized. It remains unclear how long the contract with Ocean Infinity will last, but Loke previously mentioned an estimated search duration of 18 months.
The renewed search brings fresh hope to the families of those on board MH370, many of whom have been advocating for continued efforts to uncover what happened to their loved ones.
