According to Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke, an American technology company has proposed a new and expanded search in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to have crashed a decade ago.
According to the minister, Texas-based Ocean Infinity, which also conducted searches in 2018, presented new scientific findings on where the planets might be and proposed the business model “no find, no payment”.
If the evidence is credible, Loke says he will seek government approval to sign a new contract with the company to resume the search.
“The government is unwavering in its determination to locate MH370,” Loke said at a memorial service to mark the tenth anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.
On March 8, 2014, the Boeing 777 plane with 239 people on board, most of them Chinese nationals, was en route from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff. Satellite data shows the plane deviated from its route and was believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
The search for MH370 was suspended in 2017 and has cost Malaysia, Australia and China $151 million (around SEK 1.4 billion).
Facts: Flight MH370
(TT)
On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. On board were 12 crew and 227 passengers, the majority of them Chinese nationals.
38 minutes into the flight, the plane’s communications equipment shut down or stopped working. The plane then reportedly made a sharp turn and continued to fly for seven hours, before disappearing over the Indian Ocean.
Several weeks later, search vessels picked up signals believed to come from MH370’s so-called black boxes, about 150 land miles west of Australia. After that, the boxes’ batteries are estimated to have run out. The signals have also been questioned.
In 2015 and 2016, wreckage was found on islands in the Indian Ocean and on the east coast of Africa, which indicated that the plane did not crash into the sea.
In January 2017, the search for MH370 was called off.