Malaysia’s government says it’s seeking to revive the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with the help of a U.S.-based marine robotics company, nearly 10 years after its disappearance.
“As the ministry representing the Malaysian government, the search will go on,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke said at an event on March 3 marking the 10th anniversary of the Boeing 777’s disappearance.
The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite the biggest search in aviation history, authorities haven’t been able to locate the MH370 wreckage.
The plane, 227 passengers, and 12 crew members, including 153 from China and 38 from Malaysia, have never been located.
Mr. Loke said that his ministry has invited U.S.-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity for a meeting to discuss its “no cure, no fee” proposal to conduct a new search operation for the plane.
“We are waiting for Ocean Infinity to provide acceptable dates, and I will meet them anytime that they are ready to come to Malaysia,” the minister was quoted as saying by local media outlet New Straits Times.
“I stand before you and make this promise that I will do everything possible to get the Cabinet’s approval to sign a new contract with Ocean Infinity for the search to resume as soon as possible.”
Mr. Loke declined to reveal the fee proposed by Ocean Infinity if it finds the plane, as this is subject to negotiation.
However, the minister suggested that financial cost isn’t an issue and that he doesn’t foresee any hindrances to the search’s proceeding.
He said he hopes that the search will provide answers for the families of those who were on the flight.
Previously, satellite data showed that the MH370 deviated from its flight path and was believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
But an expensive multinational government search failed to turn up any clues, although several pieces of debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands.
‘Murder-Suicide’ Plot
Tony Abbott, who was Australia’s prime minister when the plane disappeared, said that it became clear within “a week or so” that the jet’s disappearance was part of the pilot’s murder-suicide plot.“I’m not going to say who said what to whom, but let me reiterate—I want to be absolutely crystal clear—it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder-suicide by the pilot, mass murder-suicide by the pilot,” he added.
The former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot has more than 45 years of experience and was best known for his work on MH370.
“The Australian Transport Safety Bureau initially was planning to search based on it passing 38 south in the southern Indian Ocean, and this was expected and monitored by Tony Abbott,” Mr. Bailey told Sydney’s radio 2GB on Dec. 21, 2023.
“And Tony Abbott confirmed in October 2019, long after the search had been declared an accident, that the Malaysian prime minister had told him four days after the disappearance that it was a murder-suicide by the captain.”
