The final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company has been given by Malaysia’s government to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
It is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago. Cabinet ministers accepted to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement.
If the wreckage is discovered, Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million. The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly following taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing.
As per the satellite data, the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
A multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location but debris washed ashore on the East African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
The final approval for a new search came three months following Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.
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