“At this point, no one can provide guarantees.” Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said that on a Friday in December 2024 as he announced a new hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the Boeing 777 that vanished from radar on March 8, 2014 with 239 people aboard, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The search will be run by Ocean Infinity, a maritime exploration firm based in the United Kingdom and United States. It also looked for the plane in 2018 and found nothing. Loke said the company’s new proposal was “a solid one and deserves to be considered.” The government agreed to it in principle on December 13, and the ministry was expected to finalize terms by early 2025. Work resumes once both sides sign.
Terms of the contract
The deal follows the “no find, no fee” principle of the earlier search. Malaysia pays $70 million only if the aircraft is found. The contract runs 18 months, and Ocean Infinity says the best window in the target waters is January to April.
The new area covers about 15,000 square kilometers (5,800 square miles) of the southern Indian Ocean. Loke said it rests on “the latest information and data analysis conducted by experts and researchers.”
He also set a bar for success. “It has been over 10 years, and it would be unfair to expect a concrete commitment,” he said. “However, under the terms and conditions, any discovery must be credible. It cannot just be a few fragments; there are specific criteria outlined in the contract.”
A decade without the plane
Seventeen days after the plane disappeared, Malaysia’s prime minister said satellite data showed it had ended in a remote corner of the Indian Ocean and that no one survived. An Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometers over three years and was suspended in January 2017, having turned up hardly a trace. Ocean Infinity’s 2018 effort, started after protests from relatives, covered around 25,000 square kilometers north of that zone, and its vessel Seabed Constructor, even with underwater drones, did not find the wreck.
In July 2015 a fragment of the aircraft washed ashore on Reunion island, the first hard evidence that it had come down in the area. More debris later turned up on the coast of eastern Africa. A final report released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the plane’s course was changed manually.
Families
Rosila Abu Samah, 60, whose stepchild was a passenger, told AFP: “I truly hope there will be an end to the loss of MH370. May all questions be answered.” Shim Kok Chau, 49, whose wife was a flight attendant on the flight, said he has come to accept her fate but still wants to know “why it happened and who did it.”
Loke said the decision “reflects the Malaysian government’s commitment to continuing the search operation and providing closure to the families.”
Sources
- Malaysia agrees to launch new search for MH370 plane, which vanished a decade ago with 239 people on board
- Malaysia launches new search for flight MH370
- Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Sources
- Malaysia agrees to launch new search for MH370 plane… – CBS News
- Missing since 2014 – Malaysia launches new search for flight MH370
