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Malaysia to launch new search for missing MH370 plane

Malaysia to launch new search for missing MH370 plane

The Malaysian government on Friday authorized $70 million to launch new searches for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014.

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke has announced that the country’s government has signed an agreement with US robotics technology company Ocean Infinity.

The search for the missing 777-200ER commercial aircraft 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 that the initial search would last 18 months.

The terms of the agreement have yet to be finalized and research will not begin until 2025.

Ocean Infinity will only receive payment if the plane wreckage is found.

In 2018, Ocean Infinity signed a similar agreement that led to unsuccessful searches that ultimately ended after three months.

Malaysia had already spent $150 million to conduct research over two years which ended in 2017.

“I made this commitment during the 10th anniversary of the commemoration of MH370 in March 2024. I am sure that this is what the next of kin were expecting. I sincerely hope that this time it will be positive and that this wreckage can be found to provide at least some answers to the families,” Loke told reporters.

Flight MH370 disappeared while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board. Air traffic controllers lost communication with the plane less than an hour after takeoff. There is general consensus among experts that the plane deviated from its intended path, although no one is sure why.

Officially, the cause of the plane’s disappearance remains unknown, but research has given rise to numerous theories, including a 2023 Netflix documentary on the subject.

Last year, researchers at the University of South Florida released a report that barnacles found on debris believed to be from the missing airliner could possibly help determine what happened to the plane.