Byron Bailey - a former commercial airline pilot with 26,000 flight hours experience, operating mainly in Dubai - has criticized the delay in resuming the search for MH370 more than a decade after the plane went missing.
Nearly 11 years ago, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in the Indian Ocean while carrying more than 200 people.
In December 2024, Malaysia agreed to let a US-based private company - Ocean Infinity - resume a new search for the missing plane. However, 2 months after the decision was announced, the contract for this search has not been signed.
The Malaysian Transport Ministry informed Sky News Australia that the agreement to resume the search for MH370 is being considered by lawyers of the government of this country.
However, pilot Byron Bailey believes that the MH370 captain intentionally crashed the plane in a suicide mission. The veteran pilot also accused Malaysia and Australia of trying to hide this truth.
If MH370 is found, they will be very confused to explain why it was a mysterious accident with all this evidence, the former Bailey pilot told Sky News Australia.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) did not respond to Mr. Bailey's accusations of covering up the suicide of MH370. However, the ATSB mentioned an earlier statement regarding MH370, asserting that the agency does not need to determine nor has it made any statement about the possible cause of the planes disappearance. The ATSB stressed that the best evidence the ATSB has collected shows that the plane was not under the control of MH370 when it crashed.
In December 2024, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke informed that the Malaysian cabinet had agreed to continue the search for the missing MH370 of Malaysia Airlines. The search was conducted by Ocean Infinity.
The Malaysian Transport Ministry is discussing the final terms for the search for MH370 with Ocean Infinity. It is expected that negotiations to resume the search for MH370 will be completed in early 2025. Mr. Loke also said that the new search was conducted on a no find, no fee basis.
The search will be conducted in a new area estimated at 15,000 square kilometers in the southern Indian Ocean. Ocean Infinity's MH370 search contract will last for 18 months. The cost is $70 million if MH370 is found.
Ocean Infinity searched for MH370 in the Indian Ocean from 2017 to late 2018. In March 2024, the Texas-based company announced it had found new scientific evidence of MH370's final location. In early November 2024, in a separate statement to GB News, Ocean Infinity said the company had strengthened its understanding "of the location of MH370".
