A report by Australia’s ABC News claimed that Malaysia has reached an agreement with US company Ocean Infinity to revive the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370).
Ocean Infinity, a seabed exploration outfit has reportedly offered to search for MH370 on a “no-find, no-fee” basis'.
It is, however unclear whether any payment structure has been agreed between the tripartite coalition of Malaysia, Australia and China, the countries responsible in searching for the aircraft since March 8, 2014.
In January 2017, the search for MH370 was jointly suspended by the three countries, upon finding no traces of the plane after almost three years.
So far, the latest official information about possibly reviving the search was obtained from Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, who yesterday confirmed with Reuters that talks with Ocean Infinity are underway.
[Astro AWANI's attempt to reach Abdul Aziz has turned futile at Press time]
ABC News in a report today stated that the next-of-kin have been notified that the Malaysian government has granted permission to the MH370 response team to begin negotiating terms with Ocean Infinity.
The report also highlighted that an official announcement will be made when the NOKs have been notified.
[Astro AWANI has also tried to reach out to some NOKs and have not yielded results at the time of publication]
MH370 vanished three years ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people aboard. Its disappearance has become one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
Luqman Hariz
Fri Oct 20 2017
Squadron leader Brett McKenzie marks the name of another search aircraft on the windshield of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 on March 22, 2014. - Reuters/Jason Reed/Filepic
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