The Malaysian government is authorizing $70 million to begin a new search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014. File Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE
Dec. 20 (UPI) — The Malaysian government on Friday authorized $70 million to begin a new search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014.
Malaysian Minister of Transport Anthony Loke announced that the country’s government inked a deal with American robotic technology company Ocean Infinity.
The search for the missing 777-200ER commercial jet will take place “in a new area estimated at 15,000 square kilometers [5,790 miles] in the southern Indian Ocean,” Loke told reporters Friday.
Loke added the initial search will last for 18 months.
Terms of the deal have yet to be finalized and the search will not begin until sometime in 2025.
Ocean Infinity will only receive payment if the plane’s wreckage is found.
In 2018, Ocean Infinity signed a similar deal that led to a fruitless search that ultimately ended after three months.
Malaysia previously spent $150 million to conduct a two-year search that concluded in 2017.
“I made this commitment during the 10th anniversary of the MH370 remembrance in March 2024. I am sure this is what the next-of-kin have been waiting for. I truly hope that this time around it will turn out positively, and that wreckage can be found to at least provide some answers for the families,” Loke told reporters.
Flight MH370 vanished on the way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people aboard.with 239 people aboard. Air traffic controllers lost communication with the plane less than an hour after takeoff. There is a general consensus among experts that the plane traveled off its planned course, although nobody is certain why.
Officially, the cause of the plane’s disappearance remains unknown but the search has spawned many theories, including a 2023 Netflix documentary on the subject.
Last year, researchers at the University of South Florida published a report that found barnacles on debris purported to be from the missing airliner could eventually help determine what happened to the plane.