Malaysia to resume hunt for Flight MH370, 10 years after it vanished
Malaysia’s transport minister announced on Friday that the country has agreed to resume its search for the wreckage from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. This comes more than 10 year after the flight disappeared, in one of aviation’s biggest mysteries.
Flight MH370 was a Boeing 777 with 227 passengers and twelve crew members. It vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China, on March 8, 2014.
Anthony Loke, Transport Minister, said at a press briefing that “our responsibility, obligation and commitment are to the next-of-kin.” “We hope that this time it will be a positive experience, and the wreckage is found to give closure to families.”
Jiang Hui’s mother, who was a MH370 traveler, said she welcomed the decision to restart the search but that the process had taken too much time and it would have been better if there were more participants.
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He said: “We hope that the Malaysian Government can adopt a more transparent approach, like offering a public rewards system in which anyone can take part in the search.”
The last transmission of MH370 was around 40 minutes after the plane took off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. As the plane entered Vietnamese airspace over the Gulf of Thailand, the pilots signed off and shortly after the transponder was switched off.
The plane was tracked by radar as it flew backwards over northern Malaysia, out to the Andaman sea before turning south and losing contact.
Since then, debris, some of which is confirmed and others that are believed to have come from the aircraft has washed ashore along the coasts of Africa and islands in the Indian Ocean.
Loke confirmed that Ocean Infinity had proposed to continue the search in southern Indian Ocean, where the previous search ended in 2018.
He said a contract covering 18 months would be signed and that the firm would get $70 million for any wreckage discovered. The search would take place on the seabed in a new area of 15,000 sq km (5.790 sq mi).
The exact location of the new area searched was not given.
On the flight, there were more than 150 Chinese passengers. Other passengers included 50 Malaysians, as well as citizens from France, Australia and India as well as the United States, Ukraine, Canada and Canada.
Families of the victims have sought compensation from Malaysia Airlines and Boeing as well as aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, Allianz Insurance Group, among others.
CREDIBLE DATA
Loke stated that Malaysia had received new information from multiple experts on the location of the wreckage and Ocean Infinity felt confident in the likelihood of finding it.
The data was presented in full. “Our team has reviewed it and felt that the data is credible,” said he.
In 2018, Malaysia hired Ocean Infinity to search the southern Indian Ocean but failed twice.
This was based on the automatic connection between the Inmarsat satellites and the plane.
No-find, no-fee would be the new agreement. Malaysia would not have to pay Ocean Infinity until sufficient wreckage has been found and verified.
When asked about the chances of finding the entire plane, Loke replied that it would be unfair for anyone to expect any concrete commitment.
At this time, no one knows for certain. He said that it has been more than 10 years.
The 495-page report on the disappearance of the Boeing 777 in 2018 concluded that the controls had been deliberately manipulated so as to cause it to deviate from its course. However, investigators were unable determine who was at fault and could not offer a conclusion about what happened. They said they would wait until the wreckage is found before determining the truth.
Investigators found nothing suspicious about the financial background, the training, and the mental health of the co-pilot and captain.
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