Malaysia’s government has provisionally agreed to permit a new search effort intended to locate the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER which disappeared over the Indian Ocean a decade ago.
Contact with the aircraft and its crew, operating flight MH370, was lost over the
As the aircraft was operating the MH370 service from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014, contact was lost with the 777 and its crew.
Investigators believe the jet deviated considerably from its course – possibly as a result of deliberate action – remaining airborne for several hours after vanishing.
Extensive searches failed to find the aircraft, with only a few brief satellite signals and washed-up debris in Africa indicating that the twinjet probably came down in a remote part of the ocean, far from its planned flightpath.
The government has remained open to resuming the search, halted in May 2018 after undersea specialist Ocean Infinity ended its hunt. Investigators released a final report into the loss a couple of months later.
Ocean Infinity has put forward a new offer, the government revealed recently, which was under consideration.
At a briefing on 20 December, transport minister Anthony Loke said the country’s cabinet had agreed, in principle, to accept the ‘no find, no fee’ offer.
He states that the search will concentrate on a new location around 15,000km2 in area in the southern Indian Ocean.
Loke says the search operation in this area of interest – determined from the latest information obtained through data analysis – is the basis of a “strong proposal” by the company.
Finalisation of an agreement could be achieved early next year, he adds. The aircraft had been transporting 239 occupants at the time of its disappearance.
“After a long wait, [minister Loke’s] statement is great news,” says Ocean Infinity chief Oliver Plunkett, adding that the company expects to provide further updates in 2025, ”once we’ve finalised the details and the team gets ready to go”.
