Under a “no find, no fee” agreement, Malaysia has hired Ocean Infinity to look for MH370 in a new area in the southern Indian Ocean.
- First, Ocean Infinity will search the bottom at a new 15,000-sq-km spot.
- The government will only pay if the plane’s wreckage is found.
Malaysia’s search for Flight MH370 continues with a new step forward: the government has agreed to accept a second “no find, no fee” offer from a U.S. company to start looking for the missing plane again. Anthony Loke, the minister of transportation, made the decision public.
It is another attempt to bring peace to the families of the 239 people who died on the trip.
The Cabinet has given the go-ahead for Ocean Infinity, a marine robotics company based in Texas, to do a seabed search operation at a new spot spanning 15,000 square kilometers in the southern Indian Ocean.
Loke asserts that the proposed area is grounded in the latest information and data studies conducted by experts and researchers. This gives Ocean Infinity’s plan more weight.
The Boeing 777 plane, which was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, disappeared from radar not long after takeoff. Satellite data suggests it went off course and crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
Ocean Infinity’s previous international and private search attempts in 2018 did not find any clear evidence, but trash washed up on the coast of East Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
The government won’t have to pay Ocean Infinity until the plane’s wreckage is found. This is similar to the “no find, no fee” deal that was made during the last search.
It’s good that the government wants to help the families find peace, but the fact that there isn’t much clear evidence from earlier searches says that success may not be likely.
Additionally, depending on a “no find, no fee” deal might not always promise that the wreckage of MH370 will be found.
Oliver Punkett, CEO of Ocean Infinity, has been confident in the company’s better technology since 2018.
He says that they work with experts to look at data and narrow the search area to the most likely spot.
By the start of 2025, the terms and conditions of this agreement should be complete. This will initiate a fresh endeavor to resolve one of aviation’s most significant challenges.