Company offered big MH370 payday
MALAYSIA: Malaysia’s government has said it will pay United States company Ocean Infinity up to US$70 million (NZ$97.3m) if it can find the wreckage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within three months, in a renewed bid to solve the plane’s disappearance nearly four years ago.
Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said there was an 85 per cent chance of finding the debris in a new 25,000 square kilometre area identified by experts.
The government signed a ‘‘no cure, no fee’’ deal with the Houston, Texas-based company to resume the hunt for the plane, a year after the official search by Malaysia, Australia and China in the southern Indian Ocean was called off.
The plane vanished on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Bei- jing with 239 people on board.
‘‘The primary mission by Ocean Infinity is to identify the location of the wreckage and/or both of the flight recorders ... and present a considerable and credible evidence to confirm the exact location of the two main items,’’ Liow said.
If the mission is successful within three months, payment will be made based on the size of the area searched.
Ocean Infinity Chief Executive Oliver Plunkett said the search vessel Seabed Constuctor, which left the South African port of Durban last week, is expected to reach the southern Indian Ocean by January 17 to begin the hunt.
He said eight autonomous underwater vehicles, which are drones fitted with hi-tech cameras, sonars and sensors, will be dispatched to map the seabed at a faster pace.
Plunkett said the underwater drones can cover 1200sqkm a day and complete the 25,000sqkm within a month.
‘‘We have a realistic prospect of finding it,’’ he said. ‘‘While there can be no guarantees of locating the aircraft, we believe our system of multiple autonomous vehicles working simultaneously is well suited to the task at hand.’’
The official search was extremely difficult because no transmissions were received from the aircraft after its first 38 minutes of flight. – AP