Express reported on November 6 that US marine exploration company Ocean Infinity has proposed searching for missing plane MH370 in an area of 15,000 square kilometres off the west coast of Australia.
The Malaysian government may be preparing to restart the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. This plane carrying 239 people disappeared 10 years ago, on March 8, 2014 while traveling from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Beijing (China).
Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke confirmed that the government is still in the process of negotiating with Ocean Infinity about the possibility of restarting the search for MH370.
Ocean Infinity has made what officials described as a "credible" proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Australia.
Ocean Infinity's proposal to search in a completely new and groundbreaking area was submitted in June 2024, with plans to review the entire 15,000 square kilometre area.
The company offered a "no find, no fee" deal. If Ocean Infinity successfully located MH370, the company would earn $70 million - similar to the search terms previously agreed.
Minister Loke told the Malaysian parliament: "Based on the latest information and analysis from experts and researchers, Ocean Infinity's search proposal is credible and could be considered by the Malaysian government."
So far, efforts to search for MH370, despite being expensive, have yielded no results. In 2014, Malaysia, Australia and China cooperated to conduct a search on an area of 120,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean. The search campaign cost around $184 million before it was called off in January 2017.
The US company Ocean Infinity made its first attempt to search for MH370 in 2018, also on a no find, no fee basis.
Ocean Infinity's three-month search then covered 112,000 square kilometres north of the first search area.
Defense analyst Dr Lam Choong Wah from the University of Malaya has floated the idea of Malaysia cooperating with China in the latest search.
"Since most of the passengers on MH370 are Chinese, Kuala Lumpur should not hesitate to cooperate with Beijing," he told local news agency Strait Times.
