Malaysia has agreed to launch a new search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished 10 years ago with 239 people on board. The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The new search will be conducted by maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which previously searched for the aircraft in 2018 without success. A new area of the southern Indian Ocean will be scoured by Ocean Infinity, which is based in the UK and US.
Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced the agreement on Friday, stating that the search area proposed by Ocean Infinity is based on the latest information and data analysis. The government agreed to the proposal “in principle” in December 2019 and expects to finalize terms by early 2025.
The new search will resume once the contract is finalized and signed, with the ideal time being between January and April. The government has committed $70 million to the company if the plane is found, under the same “no find, no fee” principle as Ocean Infinity’s previous search.
Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has never been found. Theories about the disappearance include that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah went rogue, but a final report released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and manual course changes.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mh370-plane-malaysia-new-search