Malaysia may launch new search for MH370 amid new evidence

A US technology firm says it has new evidence of MH370’s final resting place and has offered another ‘no find, no fee’ search in the southern Indian Ocean.

A woman writes a message during an event held by relatives of the passengers and supporters to mark the 10th year since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Picture: AFP.

Malaysia may renew the hunt for a Malaysian Airways plane that has been missing for 10 years after a US technology firm proposed a fresh search in the southern Indian Ocean where the plane is thought to have crashed.

On the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Flight MH370, Malaysia Transport Minister Anthony Loke said he was considering a proposal from Texas-based Ocean Infinity for another “no find, no fee” search to scour the seabeds, expanding from the site where it first searched in 2018.

The plane, carrying 239 people, disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the Boeing 777 plane has never been found.

Mr Loke said he had invited executives from Ocean Infinity to meet him to evaluate new scientific evidence it has to find the plane’s final resting place.

He said if the evidence was credible, he would seek Cabinet’s approval to sign a new contract with Ocean Infinity to resume the search.

“The government is steadfast in our resolve to locate MH370,” Mr Loke told a remembrance event to mark the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of the jet. “We really hope the search can find the plane and provide truth to the next-of-kin.

“We are now awaiting for them to provide suitable dates and I hope to meet them soon”.

About 500 relatives and their supporters gathered Sunday at a shopping centre near the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for a “remembrance day”, with many visibly overcome with grief.

They lit 239 candles, one for each passenger lost on the flight. Some relatives came from China, where almost two-thirds of the passengers of the doomed plane were from.

“The last 10 years have been a non-stop emotional rollercoaster for me,” Grace Nathan, a 36-year-old Malaysian lawyer whose mother, Anne Daisy, 56, was on the flight, told AFP.

Speaking to the crowd, she called on the Malaysian government to conduct a new search.

“MH370 is not history,” she said.

Liu Shuang Fong, 67, from China’s Hebei province lost her 28-year-old son Li Yan Lin, who was also a passenger on the plane.

“I demand justice for my son. Where is the plane?” said Ms Liu, who flew to Malaysia for the event.

“The search must go on,” she added.

Ocean Infinity’s search in 2018 ended after several months of scouring the seabed without success.

An earlier Australia-led search that covered 120,000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean found hardly any trace of the plane, with only some pieces of debris picked up.

Considered the biggest search in aviation history, the operation was suspended in January 2017.

The plane’s disappearance has long been the subject of a host of theories – ranging from the credible to outlandish – including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.

A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

With AFP