Malaysia willing to search for lost flight

MALAYSIA IS open to proposals to resume the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, as families of passengers marked the fifth anniversary of the jet’s disappearance.

The US firm Ocean Infinity mounted a “no cure, no fee” search for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean in January 2018 that ended in May without any clues. But Ocean Infinity’s CEO, Oliver Plunkett, said in a video shown at the public remembrance event yesterday in Kuala Lumpur that the company hopes to resume the search with better technology.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the government “is waiting for specific proposals, in particular from Ocean Infinity”, to resume the search for the plane, which vanished March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

The Ocean Infinity mission came a year after an official search by Malaysia, Australia and China ended in futility.

Mr Plunkett said his company has better technology now after successfully locating an Argentinian submarine in November, a year after it went missing.

He said the firm is still reviewing all possible data on Flight 370 and thinking about how it can revive its failed mission. “We haven’t given up hope . ... We hope we can continue the search in due course,” Mr Plunkett said.

Mr Loke said it’s been frustrating that the two searches

failed to produce any clues and that he “welcomes credible leads and also concrete proposals to resume the search”.

He brushed off suggestions of offering rewards to find the plane, but said the government is willing to discuss proposals from any companies prepared to resume the search.

“There must be a proposal from a specific company ... we cannot just be out there without credible leads. That’s the most practical thing to do,” Mr Loke said.