Malaysia approves new search for plane missing for more than a decade

Malaysia’s government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago.

Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 5,800-square-mile site in the ocean, transport minister Anthony Loke said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ocean Infinity will be paid 70 million dollars (£53.8 million) only if wreckage is discovered.

The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.

The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.

Ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyse data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.

Mr Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but did not provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January to April is the best period for the search.

“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,” Mr Loke said in a statement.