The Malaysian government says it has agreed in principle to continue the search for the passenger jet that disappeared 10 years ago, one of aviation’s biggest mysteries.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Efforts to find the wreckage of the Boeing 777 have failed for years and hundreds of families of those on board are still haunted by the tragedy.
On Friday, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the cabinet had approved in principle a $70 million deal with US-based marine exploration company Ocean Infinity to search for the plane.
Under the “no find, no fee” arrangement, Ocean Infinity will only be paid when the wreckage is found.
Ocean Infinity’s 2018 search for similar conditions ended unsuccessfully after three months.
A $150 million multinational effort ended in 2017 after two years of scouring the high seas.
Although the government has “in principle” accepted Ocean Infinity’s offer, Loke said negotiations on the specific terms of the deal are still ongoing and will be completed early next year.
The minister said the new search would cover an area of 15,000 square kilometers in the southern Indian Ocean, based on new data that Kuala Lumpur deemed “credible”.
“We hope this time it will be positive,” Loke said, adding that finding the wreckage would give comfort to the families of those on board.
Relatives of passengers on flight MH370 welcomed the Malaysian government’s approval of a new search.
Jacquita Gonzales, wife of MH370 flight supervisor Patrick Gomes, told the New Straits Times: “I’m so excited to hear this news… I feel like this is the best Christmas gift ever “.
Intan Maizura Othaman also told the press: “This announcement evokes mixed emotions – hope, gratitude and sadness. After nearly 11 years, the uncertainty and pain of not having answers is extremely difficult for us.” Her husband, Mohd Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan, was a crew member.
Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the plane, told Reuters news agency that the Malaysian government must take a “more open approach” in the search to allow more players to participate.
In a statement, Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett said the Malaysian government’s decision was “great news”, adding: “We look forward to sharing further updates in new year once we finalize the details and the team is ready to go.”
Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of March 8, 2014. It lost contact with air traffic control less than an hour after takeoff and radar showed it had deviated from its planned flight path.
Investigators generally agree that the plane crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean – although it’s unclear why that happened.
Debris, believed to be from the plane, washed up on the Indian Ocean coast in the years after the plane disappeared.
A series of conspiracy theories have arisen surrounding the plane’s disappearance, from speculation that the pilot intentionally brought down the plane to claims that it was shot down by a foreign military.
A 2018 investigation into the plane’s disappearance found that the plane’s controls may have been deliberately manipulated to send it off course, but drew no conclusions about who was behind the incident.
Investigators at the time said “the answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found”.
