PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia's Cabinet has approved, in principle, the proposal from Ocean Infinity to resume search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in a new area in the southern Indian Ocean.
"The Ministry of Transport is currently negotiating the terms and conditions of the agreement with Ocean Infinity, which is expected to be finalised in early 2025," said Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook in a press conference today.
Loke added that the search would begin immediately after an agreement is reached.
"The company's proposal is credible and merits further examination by the Malaysian government as the state of registration for MH370," he explained.
On Nov 5, Loke said the ministry was considering an offer submitted in June from Ocean Infinity, a marine robotics firm based in Austin, Texas and Southampton, United Kingdom, to resume the search for MH370.
He said the offer by the firm's UK branch was based on the "no find, no fee" principle, which means the government would not have to make any payment if the wreckage is not found.
The offer covered a new area of about 15,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean "proposed by Ocean Infinity based on the latest information and data analysis conducted by experts and researchers consulted by the company."
On March 8, 2014, flight MH370 en route to Beijing vanished from commercial radar screens less than an hour after taking off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
It was later revealed that the aircraft, which was tracked by military radar, had made a 180-degreee turn, crossed the peninsula to the Straits of Malacca, turned north before being lost somewhere north of Sumatera.
The use of satellite technology later surmised that the aircraft, which had 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, ended up in the southern Indian Ocean.
An extensive search and subsequent ones turned up nothing, though several pieces of debris, some of which have been confirmed as having come from MH370, were found on beaches on the east coast of Africa and nearby islands.