The Malaysian cabinet has given the green light for a new search mission to find the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, over a decade after the plane went missing. This search will encompass a 15,000-square-kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean and will be carried out by the exploration company Ocean Infinity under a “no find, no fee” contract. If the company successfully locates the wreckage, they will be compensated with $70 million, according to Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook.
Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board during its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. To date, this remains one of the world’s most baffling aviation mysteries, deeply affecting the families of those on board.
Previous attempts to find the missing aircraft, including a multinational search that lasted four years and cost $150 million, did not yield any results. The governments of Malaysia, Australia, and China have stated that any future search efforts will depend on the emergence of credible new evidence regarding the plane’s location.
In December, the Malaysian government provisionally agreed to restart the search, but the final negotiations took until March to complete. Now that Malaysia has given its definitive approval, the search can commence.
Transport Minister Loke stated that the government is dedicated to providing the families of the MH370 passengers with closure. The search operation is yet another step in unraveling the mysteries of the flight’s disappearance, which made headlines worldwide and inspired various theories, including the possibility of deliberate actions by the pilot or the involvement of foreign military forces.
Even though there have been some pieces of debris presumed to be from the plane washing up on the shores, the lack of definitive evidence has kept the flight’s fate uncertain. Investigations to date have suggested that the plane was deliberately taken off course, but without the wreckage, no conclusive answers can be provided.
The announcement of the renewed search effort has evoked varied reactions from the passengers’ families, with some welcoming it as a step toward finding closure and others feeling it is a bittersweet development.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2erydmm3lzo
