Latest Search for MH370 Ends

The private company that has been carrying out an underwater operation to find the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean is to end the search. Airwise.com reported that the US-based Ocean Infinity made an offer to the Malaysian government last year that it would restart the search for the Boeing 777 on a results basis. The company would only receive payment for its work if the aircraft was located. The three months of operational days agreed to by Malaysia has now come to an end without success and the company said it would end the search. “Whilst clearly the outcome so far is extremely disappointing, as a company, we are truly proud of what we have achieved both in terms of the quality of data we’ve produced and the speed with which we covered such a vast area,” the company’s chief executive Oliver Plunkett said. “There simply has not been a subsea search on this scale carried out as efficiently or as effectively ever before.” The Ocean Infinity search covered an area of 112,000 square km (just over 43,200 sq. miles) of the ocean floor, which is almost as much as the previous search achieved in over two years. The initial search of 120,000 square km (46,300 sq. miles) was carried out on behalf of Australia, China and Malaysia, but was called off in January 2017 after nothing was found. The latest search for MH370 started in January 2018, in an area considered by investigators as the most likely location for the wreckage.