Hong Kong – A U.S.-based company is recovering searches for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, nearly 11 years after one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history disappeared.
Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Tuesday that the government has made preliminary approvals for Ocean Infinity, an Austin, Texas-based marine robotics company, to resume searches. He said the details of the contract are being completed, including how long the search will last.
Ocean Infinity conducted a months-long search in 2018 but found no signs of the plane, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members shortly after it took off from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur (Kuala Lumpur).
The company said technological advances increased the chances of success, and the Malaysian government said in December that it had agreed to unlimited searches for the ocean on a “no discovery, no fees” basis.
Loke told reporters that Ocean Infinity “has confidence that the current search area is more credible because they have covered a large area before and think it is a missed area in past searches.”
“They believe the region will produce positive results and are ready to take risks and resume searches,” Locke said. “That’s why the Malaysian government continues to move forward.”
A spokesman for Ocean Infinity said Wednesday that the company “has no information available at the moment.”
According to Marinetraffic, the marine infinity ship Armada 78 06 was in the southern Indian Ocean as of February 23.
The Boeing 777 has disappeared in one of the most remote areas in the world, and experts say it could be an underwater mile. Early searches focused on the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea, and then expanded to the Indian Ocean in southwestern Australia.
Despite spanning hundreds of thousands of square miles, the largest in aviation history, nothing was found in the airplane except about twenty pieces of debris that washed ashore on the coast of the East Africa and the islands on the Indian Ocean.
The cause of the crash is still unknown, and theories include mechanical failure, hijacking or aircraft intentionally departing from the route.
People on the plane, including more than 150 Chinese citizens, have been promoting searches.
Locke said he hopes that the ocean’s unlimited new efforts provide answers not only to families, but to the aviation industry as a whole, because it is the biggest mystery in aviation history. ”
