A new search is being launched for MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared 11 years ago, with the hopes of providing some answers in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries.
In December 2024, Malaysia agreed to resume the search for the Boeing 777 that was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity has resumed the hunt for the missing plane, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Tuesday, telling reporters that contract details between Malaysia and Ocean Infinity are still being finalized.
In December, Loke said the government would sign the contract on a “no-find, no-fee” basis — if the wreckage is located and verified, Ocean Infinity will receive US$70 million.
While Malaysia had not yet signed the contract, Loke said Tuesday, he welcomed the company’s “proactiveness” in deploying its ships to that area to begin the search.
FILE – A Malaysian woman lights a candle during a special prayer for the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at a church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Tuesday, March 8, 2016.
Joshua Paul / The Associated Press
“Since Ocean Infinity already started to mobilize their ships, of course we welcome it because we have given the principal approval for the search to resume and just need to finalize the contract,” he said at a press conference.
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He warned, however, that there will be a certain time frame for the search in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast.
“It is not indefinite; there is a certain time frame given for the contract. These are the details that we need to finalize before we sign,” Loke added.
MH370 vanished from radar shortly after taking off in 2014. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues, although debris washed ashore on the East African coast and Indian Ocean islands.
A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
FILE – A relative of Chinese passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 wears a T-shirt that reads ‘Pray for MH370’ as a passenger jet flies overhead near the venue where relatives have gathered to hear a report written by a 19-member international team in Beijing, China, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018.
Ng Han Guan/AP
A Malaysian-led independent investigation report released in July 2018 showed lapses in the government’s response, and raised the possibility of “intervention by a third party.”
Investigators have said the cause of the disappearance can’t be determined until the wreckage and the plane’s black boxes are found. The report reiterated Malaysia’s assertion the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications.
The investigation said there was no evidence of abnormal behaviour or stress in the two pilots that could lead them to hijack the plane.
All the other passengers were also cleared by police and had no pilot training.
—With files from Reuters
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