A couple looks at a Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mural painting at Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in March 2019. A new search is underway to locate the aircraft using the latest data analysis and submersible search technology. File Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE
British maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity has renewed its efforts to locate the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 more than 10 years after it disappeared from radar screens with 239 aboard.
Ocean Infinity already has deployed autonomous submersibles to search an area about 1,200 miles northwest of Perth, Australia, Malaysia Transport Minister Anthony Loke told media Tuesday. Advertisement
Loke did not say when Ocean Infinity began the current search but said the search has begun while final contract details are being ironed out between Ocean Infinity and Malaysian officials.
Ocean Infinity’s deep-water submersible Armada 7806 UAVs are searching the bottom of the Indian Ocean in hopes of locating the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that crashed into the ocean on May 8, 2014, leaving only small pieces of floating debris, the Independent reported.
Flight MH370 was bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur but disappeared from radar screens about 40 minutes into the six-hour flight.
None of the 239 passengers and crew have been found despite several search attempts, including one by Ocean Infinity in 2018.
Ocean Infinity had a “no find, no fee” agreement with the Malaysian government in 2018 and is operating under those same terms during the current search, Loke said. Advertisement
The current search contract is for 18 months and would pay Ocean Infinity $70 million if it located the aircraft.
A prior Australian-led search for the missing aircraft lasted for three years and scoured 46,300 square miles of the Indian Ocean before that search ended in January 2017 with only some pieces of debris recovered.
A wing flap from flight MH370 was located in Pemba Island, Tanzania, but little else was found.
Ocean Infinity is focusing its new search efforts of a 5,800-square-mile area in the southern Indian Ocean and four particular areas within that search area.
The new search area was chosen due to the newest information and data analysis done by researchers and experts to determine the aircraft’s likeliest location based on satellite signals and radio transmissions from the flight.
Ocean Infinity’s Armada 7806 UAVs can dive to a depth of nearly 3.75 miles while scanning the ocean floor and are operated using a satellite link.
They can stay submerged for up to four days, which is twice as long as the submersibles Ocean Infinity used during its 2018 search.
The missing flight MH370 has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history and spurred many theories. Advertisement
A final report issued in 2018 said air traffic control errors likely contributed to the aircraft’s disappearance and the flight’s course had been changed manually.
