'No Find, No Fee': US Firm to Resume Search for Malaysian Flight 370
A US-based seabed exploration company hopes to make millions if it finds the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 within 90 days, media reports have said.
Almost four years after the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens while en- route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, Ocean Infinity, a private salvage company, has resumed the search for the missing plane.
Even though Ocean Infinity, chosen by the Malaysian government to do the job, will have to pay for the search operation from its own pocket, it will receive $90 million if the wreckage is found within 90 days.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 passengers and crew on board fell off the radar a few hours after departing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014 sparking the largest search in aviation history.
Tracking data released by the Malaysian authorities confirmed that the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean, south-west of Australia, the BBC reported.
Despite an unprecedented search-and-rescue effort, which covered 120,000 square kilometers and cost $200 million, no trace of the plane was ever found and the search operation was eventually called off in January 2017, much to the anguish of distraught relatives.
The Texas-based Ocean Infinity will use advanced sonar scanning equipment and underwater vehicles capable of operating at depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,600 feet) in its effort to find the aircraft.
Ocean Infinity will be searching the seabed in a 25,000 square kilometer area (9,700 square miles) just north of the original search location.
“With multiple autonomous vehicles working simultaneously utilizing innovative technology, we are able to survey huge swathes of the seabed, quickly and with outstanding accuracy,’’ the company’s website says.
- Source : Sputnik
