Headline
Malaysia endorses American corporation's proposal to reinitiate hunt for lost MH370 aircraft.
The Malaysian administration consented to a plan on Friday to reinitiate the hunt for Malaysian Airlines MH370, which vanishes over a decade ago and stays one of the unresolved significant aviation calamities in history.
Crucial Points
Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that the nation's cabinet had "concurred in principle" to an offer made by American marine robotics and deep-sea exploration firm, Ocean Infinity, to restart the examination.
The official particulars of the understanding with Ocean Infinity will be settled soon in the new year and will be based on the "no find, no fee" proposal proposed by the corporation previously this year.
If a substantial fragment of the MH370 is found, Ocean Infinity will pocket $70 million.
Loke specified that Ocean Infinity's research would concentrate on a new area "assessed at 15,000 square kilometers" in the southern Indian Ocean—often deemed the region where the aircraft crashed.
The minister highlighted that Ocean Infinity was optimistic about the proposed investigation area, and authorities concluded the company held a reputable cue "based on the study of many experts."
Loke underscored the Malaysian government's "responsibility and obligation and promise" to the families of the passengers, and he wished "the debris will be found and provide closure to the families."
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What We Know About Ocean Infinity’s Offer
In March this year—just before the tenth anniversary of MH370's disappearance—Ocean Infinity presented a proposal for a new underwater hunt for the missing plane. The Austin, Texas-based company's CEO Oliver Plunkett shared with Malaysian outlet the New Straits Times that they had procured newer technology and more advanced robotics since its fruitless attempt to search for the plane in 2018 and was all set to "return to the search." Plunkett confirmed Ocean Infinity had collaborated with several experts to analyze available data on the missing plane to help narrow the research area "down to one in which achievement becomes potentially achievable."
Key Background
The disappearance of the MH370 keeps one of the biggest aviation-related enigmas of the past few decades. The plane was scheduled to take a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 227 passengers and 12 team members on board, but unexpectedly disappeared on March 8, 2014. The inexplicable disappearance triggered a multinational search effort using planes, satellites, surface ships, and underwater crafts. However, no substantial information about what occurred to the plane and its final location was found, although experts believe it crashed in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. Although the crash site has never been located, small fragments of the aircraft have washed up along the eastern coast of Africa and other islands in the Indian Ocean.
The Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke mentioned that the new search area for MH370, missing since 2014, will be in the southern Indian Ocean, specifically a region assessed to be 15,000 square kilometers, which is where Ocean Infinity plans to focus its investigation. Previously this year, Ocean Infinity, the American marine robotics and deep-sea exploration firm, presented a proposal to Malaysian Airlines, following up on their unsuccessful search attempt in 2018, promising to find substantial fragments of the plane for a reward of $70 million under their "no find, no fee" agreement.
