MH370 search offer

AMERICAN seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity has offered to search for missing Flight MH370, as victims’ families urge the Malaysian Government to agree to a private-sector hunt for the wreckage.

Australia, Malaysia and China suspended a nearly three-year Indian Ocean search in January after scouring 120,000sq km of remote seabed and failing to find any trace of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Ocean Infinity said yesterday it remained hopeful Malaysia would accept its offer to continue the search using a team of advanced, fast-moving deep-sea drones fitted with sonar equipment.

“The terms of the offer are confidential but I can confirm that Ocean Infinity have offered to take on the economic risk of a renewed search,” the company said in an email.

Voice370, a support group for families of the 239 people on board, said under the terms of the offer made in April, Ocean Infinity “would like to be paid a reward if and only if it finds the main debris field”.

An international board of experts has concluded the Boeing 777 most likely crashed in a 25,000sq km area on the northern boundary of the last search zone, far southwest of Australia. But Australia, Malaysia and China agree the newly identified area is too big to justify resuming the publicly funded search, which has already cost $200 million.

Australia has co-ordinated the search on Malaysia’s behalf because the plane crashed in Australia’s zone of responsibility on March 8, 2014, off-course on a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.