Texas robotics company gets approval to search for missing Malaysia Flight MH370 in a new part of the Indian Ocean

By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-20 16:22:26 | Updated at 2025-04-05 10:38:56 2 weeks ago

Malaysia’s government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago.

Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer site (5,800 square miles, or a little larger than Connecticut) in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday.

Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.

Malaysia’s government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. REUTERS

The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing.

Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the East African coast and Indian Ocean islands.

A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.

The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.

Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered. Ocean infinity

Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation. Ocean infinity

The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. EPA

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018.

He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and has narrowed the search area to the most likely site.

Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn’t provide details on the terms.

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. Ocean infinity

Jiang Hui, a relative of a passenger on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, spoke to the media after a meeting in Beijing on March 8, 2025, on the 11th anniversary of the flight’s disappearance. AFP via Getty Images

A family member cries as she and other relatives pray during a candlelight vigil for passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, at Lido Hotel, in Beijing April 8, 2014. REUTERS

The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January through April is the best period for the search.

“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,” he said in a statement.

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