Families of MH370 passengers urge Malaysia to extend ocean search
Families of those aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 urged the government to extend a contract with deep-sea exploration firm Ocean Infinity
Families of those aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Sunday urged the Malaysian government to extend a contract it signed with deep-sea exploration firm Ocean Infinity to continue a search for the aircraft that disappeared 12 years ago.
The Boeing 777 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, becoming one of the world’s enduring aviation mysteries.
Multiple search operations for the plane have been conducted in the southern Indian Ocean since then but all have proved fruitless.
Malaysia in March last year agreed to allow Ocean Infinity to resume the hunt under a “no find, no fee” principle, with the firm to be paid US$70 million only if the wreckage was successfully located.
Malaysia’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said on Sunday, however, that operations had not yielded any findings so far, after two search phases covering 28 days and around 7,571 sq km (2,923 square miles) of seabed.
Operations were periodically disrupted by weather and sea conditions, with the second phase ending on January 23, the AAIB said.