Malaysia to resume search for MH370 a decade after it vanished

Malaysia has agreed to resume the search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries, the transport minister has announced.

“Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke told a press conference on Friday.

“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.”

Mr Loke said the proposal to resume the search in the southern Indian Ocean came from exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which had conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018.

A contract would be signed to cover an 18-month period and the firm would receive $US70 million ($112 million) if the wreckage found was substantive, he said, adding the search would be on the seabed of a new area covering 15,000 square kilometres.

No precise location of the new search area was given.

Mr Loke said Malaysia had assessed new data on the possible location from multiple experts and Ocean Infinity was confident about the chances of locating the wreckage. But he stopped short of offering a concrete commitment.

“At this point of time, nobody knows for sure. It has been over 10 years,” he said.

“The data has all been presented. Our team has gone through and they felt that it is credible,” he said.

The new arrangement would be on a no-find-no-fee principle, whereby Malaysia would not be required to pay Ocean Infinity unless sufficient wreckage is found and verified.

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Wreckage finds could determine cause of MH370’s disappearance

Flight MH370 — a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew — vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

MH370’s last transmission was about 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. The pilots signed off as the plane entered Vietnamese air space over the Gulf of Thailand and soon after its transponder was turned off.

Military radar showed the plane left its flight path to fly back over northern Malaysia then out into the Andaman Sea before turning south, then all contact was lost.

An underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China in a 120,000 square-kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane failed to find MH370 following its disappearance.

Two more attempts by Ocean Infinity, which Malaysia first engaged for the job in 2018, also failed.

Debris, some confirmed and some believed to be from the aircraft, has since washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.

A 495-page report into the disappearance in 2018 said the Boeing 777’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to go off course, but investigators could not determine who was responsible and stopped short of offering a conclusion on what happened. They said that depended on finding the wreckage.

Investigators have said there was nothing suspicious in the background, financial affairs, training and mental health of both the captain and co-pilot.

More than 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight. Others included 50 Malaysians as well as citizens of France, Australia, Indonesia, India, the United States, Ukraine and Canada, among others.

Relatives have demanded compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and the Allianz insurance group, among others.

Jiang Hui, whose mother was a MH370 passenger, welcomed the decision to resume the search but said the process to get there had taken too long and would be better if more players could take part.

“We hope the Malaysian government can adopt a more open approach, such as offering a public reward system where anyone can participate in the search,” he said.

Reuters