5 years on, Malaysia open to proposals to resume MH370 hunt

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Malaysia's transport minister said on Sunday that the government is open to new proposals from companies including U.S. technology firm Ocean Infinity to resume the hunt for Flight 370, as families of passengers marked the fifth anniversary of the jet's mysterious disappearance.

In January 2018, Ocean Infinity mounted a "no cure, no fee" search for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean and the search ended in May without any clue on where it could have crashed.

But the company's CEO, Oliver Plunkett, said in a video shown at the public remembrance event at a mall near Kuala Lumpur that the company hopes to resume the hunt with better technology it obtained in the past year.

CEO of Ocean Infinity Oliver Plunkett (1st from right) shakes hands with Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke after a signing ceremony to resume the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in Putrajaya, January 10, 2018. /VCG Photo

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

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," Plunkett said.

Malaysia's Minister of Transport Anthony Loke speaks to the media at a news conference during a Five Years of Remembrance for Malaysian Airlines MH370 event in Kuala Lumpur, March 3, 2019. /VCG Photo

Transport Minister Anthony 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."

Loke said that the government is "waiting for specific proposals, in particular from Ocean Infinity." 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," Loke said.

Family members of missing MH370 passengers hold lit candles during a memorial ahead of the fifth anniversary of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight in Kuala Lumpur, March 3, 2019. /VCG Photo

Flight MH370 vanished with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Confirmed debris that washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean helped narrow the search area where Ocean Infinity focused, but it failed to uncover any evidence.

Voice 370, a support group for next-of-kin, expressed hope that the new government that won a general election in May last year will do more to encourage search missions and seek new clues.

The group's spokesperson, Grace Nathan, urged the government to set aside up to 70 million U.S. dollars – the amount it agreed to pay Ocean Infinity had it found the plane – to encourage exploration companies to take on "no cure, no fee" missions so that Flight 370′s passengers will not have died in vain.

"It is a wound that cannot heal" if there is no closure, Nathan said.

Source(s): AP