20 December 2024 , 09:58
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Malaysian authorities will resume the search for missing flight MH370, more than 10 years after the Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished on March 8, 2014
Malaysian authorities have made the shocking announcement that search efforts for missing flight MH370 will resume - more than a decade after the aircraft went missing.
Transport minister Anthony Loke said the government would search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean after liaising with exploration firm Ocean Infinity - which had launched an exploration for the aircraft earlier this year - having floated a US$70 million (£56million) reward should it find new, substantive wreckage.
Loke said the Malaysian government has a "responsibility and obligation" to people who lost loved ones when the aircraft disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014. He added that his government hoped to "give closure" to the families who have questions about what happened.
Families of people who died in the wreckage continue to seek answers ( Image: AFP via Getty Images)
He said: "Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin. We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families." The Malay Mail reports the government agreed "in principle" to accept a new proposal from Ocean Infinity, which would resume the search over a 15,000km area.
But he told a post-cabinet meeting that the firm would not receive any money if it failed to find a trace of the aircraft, with the search starting on the "no-find-no-fee principle". He continued: "The Cabinet has agreed in principle to accept Ocean Infinity’s proposal to resume the search for MH370’s wreckage in a new search area estimated at 15,000km (9,320 miles) per square based on the no-find-no-fee principle. This means the government will not have to pay unless the wreckage is found."
Some confirmed pieces of wreckage have been found since MH370 went missing (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The Malaysian Airlines-operated flight lifted off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8, with a destination of Beijing Capital International Airport. It disappeared over the Indian Ocean, likely in the southern portion of the area, with all of its 239 occupants - including 227 passengers and 12 crew - presumed dead.
Debris presumed to be from the aircraft has washed up in the years since its disappearance, with some confirmed pieces of MH370 appearing along the coast of Africa, and on some Indian Ocean islands. Relatives of passengers and others who were on the flight have not given up, with many demanding action from the organisations involved in constructing and flying the plane.