Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on December 20 that the private marine exploration company Ocean Infinity (USA) has proposed to search for a new area in the South Indian Ocean. Previously, Ocean Infinity also conducted a search for MH370’s body and ended in 2018.
At the press conference, Mr. Loke stated that Ocean Infinity will receive 70 million USD if the plane wreckage is found to have actual value. “We hope this time there will be positive signs, that the plane’s wreckage will be discovered and the pain for the victims’ families will end,” he said.
People in Malaysia left memorial lines for the victims of flight MH370
Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft number MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, disappeared on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Beijing (China). . Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility that the plane was deliberately sent off course.
Some confirmed debris from MH370 has drifted along the African coast and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
Malaysia hired Ocean Infinity in 2018 to search in the Southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70 million if the plane was found, but failed in two attempts. A subsequent search in coordination with Malaysia, Australia and China in the Southern Indian Ocean region, based on automatic connection data between the Inmarsat satellite and the aircraft, also did not yield positive results. .
In November, Ocean Infinity proposed that the Malaysian government restart the search, emphasizing that the government would not lose money if the operation ended without finding the plane’s wreckage. An anonymous source told The Straits Times that the period from November to March is the best time to start looking, because summer waters in the Southern Hemisphere are calmer than fierce winter storms.
