The Malaysian government has agreed in principle to accept a second 'no discovery, no fee' offer from a US company to resume the search for Flight MH370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago. said Transport Minister Anthony. Roque said Friday.
Rourke said ministers agreed at a meeting last week that Ocean Infinity, a Texas-based marine robotics company, will continue undersea search operations at a new 5,800-square-mile site in the ocean next year.
“The proposed new search areas identified by Ocean Infinity are based on the latest information and data analysis conducted by experts and researchers. The company's recommendations are reliable,” he said in a statement.
The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, shortly after taking off from Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them Chinese.
Satellite data showed the plane apparently veered off course and headed over the southern Indian Ocean, where it crashed.
Debris washed ashore on the coasts of East Africa and islands in the Indian Ocean, but an expensive multinational search yielded no clues.
A private investigation by Ocean Infinity in 2018 found nothing.
Under the new contract, Ocean Infinity will receive $70 million only if significant wreckage is found, Rourke said.
The ministry said it would finalize negotiations with Ocean Infinity in early 2025.
He said the company has suggested that January to April is the best time to do the research.
“This decision reflects the government's commitment to continue search operations and provide closure to the families of the passengers on MH370,” he added.
Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett reportedly said earlier this year that the company has been improving its technology since 2018.
He said the company is working with a number of experts to analyze the data and narrow the search to the most likely sites.
