Malaysia has extended its contract with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity for another year to continue a deep-sea search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared 12 years ago in the southern Indian Ocean.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Monday that the Cabinet had approved the extension of the “no-find, no-fee” agreement with Ocean Infinity until June 30 next year. “This decision is a manifestation of the government’s continuous and unwavering commitment to provide a closure for the next of kin of the passengers aboard flight MH370,” he said in a statement, News.Az reports, citing India Today.
Loke said the extension would allow Ocean Infinity to complete the remaining 7,428.54-square-kilometre search area after temporarily redeploying its main search assets for other commercial contracts. He added that the company’s vessels are expected to return to the MH370 mission between November and April next year, when calmer seas offer the safest and most effective window for underwater operations.
The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar soon after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, most of them Chinese nationals, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Satellite data later showed that the aircraft had turned away from its planned route and headed south towards the far southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
A costly multinational search did not find any clue to the plane’s location, though debris later washed ashore on the East African coast and islands in the Indian Ocean. A private search by Ocean Infinity in 2018 also found nothing. Last year, Malaysia approved a renewed search by the company at a new 15,000-square-kilometre site in the southern Indian Ocean, under a deal that will see Ocean Infinity paid USD 70 million only if wreckage is found.
The latest extension keeps that effort alive for another year, with Malaysia saying the move is aimed at helping complete the remaining search and provide closure to the families of those on board MH370.