By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Malaysia says the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 will resume, 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Friday that the proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean came from exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which had also conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018.
The firm will receive $70 million if substantive wreckage is found, Loke said at a press conference.
“Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin,” he said.
“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.”
Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.
Debris, some confirmed and some believed to be from the aircraft, has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
More than 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight, with relatives demanding compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce, and the Allianz insurance group among others.
Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity in 2018 to conduct a search in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70 million if it found the plane, but it failed on two attempts.
