Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million if it finds the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, and nothing if it does not. Under that “no find, no fee” deal, the exploration firm began a new search of the southern Indian Ocean in February 2025, more than a decade after the Boeing 777 vanished.
Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced on Tuesday that the hunt had resumed. Contract details were still being finalized, he said, and how long the search would run had not been negotiated. He did not say when exactly the firm had started. He welcomed “the pro-activeness of Ocean Infinity to deploy their ships.”
The area and the contract
The search covers 15,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean. Loke said in December that the contract runs for 18 months. Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, ran an earlier search in 2018 under similar terms. It lasted three months and found nothing.
“They combined all the data and they felt confident that the current search area is more credible,” Loke said. “They have convinced us that they are ready.”
Malaysia’s cabinet gave its final approval on a Wednesday in March 2025, the BBC reported. Loke said in a statement that “the government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the MH370 passengers.”
A flight that never arrived
MH370 left Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing, with 239 people on board. Less than an hour after takeoff it lost contact with air traffic control, and radar showed it had left its planned route. Investigators generally agree that it crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. Pieces of debris believed to come from the aircraft have washed up on Indian Ocean shores since.
An Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres and was suspended in January 2017. The BBC put its cost at $150m. A 2018 investigation found that the controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take the plane off course, but drew no conclusion about why. Investigators said then that “the answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found.”
Just under two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals. Thirty-eight were Malaysians, and the rest came from countries including Australia, Indonesia, India, France, Ukraine and the US.
Families react
Grace Nathan, a Malaysian who lost her mother on the flight, told AFP: “We’re very relieved and pleased that the search is resuming once again after such a long hiatus.”
Others are frustrated by the way news reaches them. Li Eryou, 68, whose 29-year-old son was aboard, said families were promised immediate notice but learn of developments online. Relatives of Chinese passengers met officials in Beijing earlier in March, and some gathered outside the Malaysian embassy there on the 11th anniversary of the disappearance, chanting “Give us back our loved ones!”
Sources
- Families of loved ones who were lost on MH370 'relieved' a new search has been launched
- New search begins for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 missing nearly 11 years
- MH370: Malaysia green-lights new search for wreckage in Indian Ocean
