Malaysia agrees to launch new search for missing flight MH370 with 239 people on board 10 years ago

Malaysia announced on Friday that it had agreed to launch a new search Malaysia Airlines flight MH370It disappeared 10 years ago in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries.

Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared From the radar screens on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane was never found. 17 days after the plane’s disappearance, Malaysia’s prime minister said that according to satellite data, his government they came to the conclusion that the plane had crashed In a remote corner of the Indian Ocean and no one survived.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Malaysia had agreed to a new search operation by a maritime intelligence company. Ocean Infinitywhich also carried out an unsuccessful hunt in 2018.

The company’s first efforts followed a massive Australian search for the plane that lasted three years until it was called off in January 2017.

Loke said the new 5,800-square-mile area in the southern Indian Ocean will be cleared by UK- and US-based Ocean Infinity.

“The new search space offered by Ocean Infinity is based on the latest data and information analysis conducted by experts and researchers,” said Loke.

“Ocean Infinity’s search operation proposition is a solid one and deserves consideration,” he said.

The government said on December 13 that it agreed “in principle” to Ocean Infinity’s proposal and expected the transport ministry to finalize terms by early 2025.

Loke said the new search would resume “as soon as the contract is finalized and signed by both parties.”

“They told us that the ideal time for searching in designated waters is between January and April. We are working to finalize the agreement as soon as possible,” he added.

“I really hope that there will be an end to the loss of MH370. All questions will be answered,” Malaysian Rosila Abu Samah, 60, the stepmother of one of the passengers, told AFP.

Malaysian Shim Kok Chau, 49, whose wife was a flight attendant on the ill-fated flight, said he had come to accept his fate but hoped to know what happened to the plane, “why it happened and who did it”.

Other victims included a famous group of 24 Chinese calligraphy artists who had come from an exhibition of their work. The two Iranian youths on board, Pouria Nur Mohammad Mehrdad, 18, and Delawar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29, were traveling on stolen passports in search of a better life in Europe.

Two of the US citizens on board were young children, 4-year-old Nicole Meng and 2-year-old Yan Zhang.

Philip Wood was the only one American adult in flight. The head of IBM lived in Beijing and planned to move to the Malaysian capital with his girlfriend Sarah Bajc.

“No search, no payment”

The new search will be conducted on the same “no find, no pay” basis as Ocean Infinity’s previous search, with the government paying only if the plane is found.

Loke said the contract is for 18 months and Malaysia will pay the company $70 million if the plane is found.

He said the decision to approve the new search “reflects the Malaysian government’s commitment to continue the search operation and provide closure to the families of the MH370 victims.”

The original Australian-led search covered 120,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean, but found no trace of the plane, only some pieces of wreckage.

In July 2015, a piece of aircraft later confirmed to be a flaperon Flight MH370 was found washed ashore on Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean. This was the first solid evidence that the plane had crashed in the area. More wreckage was later found off the coast of East Africa.

The plane’s disappearance has long been the subject of theories, including veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah he had misbehaved.

The final report on the tragedy, released in 2018, pointed to a failure of air traffic control and said the plane’s course was manually changed.

Asked if he was confident the plane would be found during a new search, Loke said: “Nobody can guarantee at this point.

“More than 10 years have passed and it would be unfair to expect a concrete commitment. However, according to the terms and conditions, any discovery must be convincing. It cannot just be a few fragments, there are specific criteria defined in the contract. “