Malaysia agrees to resume search for missing passenger jet

The Malaysian government says it has agreed to restart the search for a passenger plane that disappeared 10 years ago in one of the most secretive areas in aviation.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board.

Efforts to find the wreckage of the Boeing 777 have been floundering for years and hundreds of families aboard are still reeling from the crash.

On Friday, Malaysia’s transport minister Anthony Loke said the cabinet had approved a $70m (£56m) deal with US marine research firm Ocean Infinity to acquire the plane.

Under the “no find, no fee” system, Ocean Infinity will be paid only when the accident is found.

The 2018 search by Ocean Infinity under the same slogan ended without success after three months.

The $150m multi-national project ended in 2017 after two years of extensive water damage.

Although the government “accepted” Ocean Infinity’s offer, Loke said negotiations regarding the deal are still ongoing and will be completed early next year.

The new search will cover an area of ​​15,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean, based on new data that Kuala Lumpur found “reliable”, the minister said.

“We hope it will be better this time,” said Loke, adding that finding the wreckage would bring comfort to the families of those on board.

Family members of MH370 have received Malaysian government approval for a new search.

“I am very happy for the news… It feels like the best Christmas present,” Jacquita Gonzales, wife of MH370 flight attendant Patrick Gomes, told the New Straits Times.

“This announcement evokes different emotions – hope, gratitude, and sadness. After almost 11 years, the uncertainty and the pain of not having answers have become very difficult for us,” Intan Maizura Othaman told the papers. Her husband, Mohd Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan, was a member of the cabin crew.

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the plane, told Reuters the Malaysian government should have an “open process” for the investigation to allow more players to participate.

Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of 8 March 2014. It lost contact with air traffic less than an hour after take-off and radar indicated it had deviated from its planned flight path.

Investigators agree that the plane went down somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean – although it is unclear why.

Pieces of debris, believed to be from the plane, have washed up on the Indian Ocean in the years since.

Many conspiracy theories have arisen over the plane’s disappearance, with the pilot deliberately downing the plane saying it had been shot down by foreign forces.

A 2018 investigation into the loss of the plane found that the plane’s controls may have been deliberately altered to take off, but they did not determine who was responsible.

Researchers said at the time that “the answer can only be determined if the damage is found”.