Malaysia agrees to resume search for missing flight MH370

Malaysia’s cabinet has agreed in principle to an offer from Ocean Infinity to a ‘no find, no fee’ search deal, the transport minister says

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A woman writes a message at an event to mark the 10th year since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people disappeared on March 8, 2014. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:26pm, 20 Dec 2024Updated: 7:40pm, 20 Dec 2024

Malaysia’s government has agreed to a plan to resume the search for missing flight MH370 in a new area in the Indian Ocean, 10 years after the plane disappeared with 239 people on board.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 dropped off the radar in the predawn hours of March 8, 2014, triggering what would become one of the biggest mysteries in global aviation history. Teams of local and international investigators have found few leads as to what happened to the plane after years of searching.

Malaysia’s cabinet last week agreed in principle to an offer from deep-sea explorers Ocean Infinity to resume search operations in a 15,000 sq km region of the Southern Indian Ocean on a “no find, no fee” deal, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said.

Relatives of passengers and crew on board the missing MH370 flight and Malaysia’s Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook gather at an event in Subang Jaya marking the 10th year of its disappearance. Photo: EPA-EFE

“The proposed new search area, identified by Ocean Infinity, is based on the latest information and data analyses conducted by experts and researchers,” Loke said in a statement on Friday.

“The company’s proposal is credible and merits further examination by the Malaysian government,” Loke said. His announcement comes months after he told families of those on the missing plane that the government was ready to strike a search deal with Ocean Infinity during a memorial event in March to mark the 10th anniversary of MH370’s disappearance.

Ocean Infinity previously carried out a fruitless three-month search across 112,000 sq km of the Indian Ocean in 2018.

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Malaysia agrees to resume search for missing flight MH370

The search followed an earlier international operation led by Australia and supported by China and Malaysia, which was called off in 2017 after workers scoured an area of over 120,000 sq km around a potential crash site in the southern region of the Indian Ocean. The search cost A$200 million (US$124.8 million).