The Malaysian government announced on Friday that it would launch a new search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
The Boeing 777, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, vanished while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean came from exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which had also conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018.
The firm will receive $70 million if wreckage found is substantive, Loke told a press conference.
“Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin,” he said.
“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.”
Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.
The new search will be on the same “no find, no fee” principle as Ocean Infinity’s previous search, with the government only paying out if they find the aircraft.
Loke said the decision to agree to a fresh search “reflects the Malaysian government’s commitment to continuing the search operation and providing closure to the families of the MH370 victims”.
Debris, with some parts verified and others thought to be from the aircraft, has appeared along the African coast and on various islands in the Indian Ocean.
More than 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight, with relatives demanding compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and the Allianz insurance group among others.
Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity in 2018 to search in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70 million if it found the plane, but it failed on two attempts.
That followed an underwater search by Malaysia, Australia, and China in a 120,000 square kilometer (46,332 sq mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean, based on data from automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane.
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