Malaysia has prolonged for an additional 12 months its contract with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity for a deep-sea search within the southern Indian Ocean for wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared 12 years ago.
The Cabinet on Friday approved the extension of a “no-find, no-fee” agreement with Ocean Infinity until June 30 next 12 months, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Monday.
“This decision is a manifestation of the federal government’s continuous and unwavering commitment to supply a closure for the subsequent of kin of the passengers aboard flight MH370,” he said in a press release.
The extension enables Ocean Infinity to finish the remaining 7,428.54-square-kilometer (2,868-square-mile) search area, after temporarily redeploying its primary search assets to meet other industrial contracts, he said.
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’s believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search didn’t turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the East African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A personal search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
Get day by day National news
Get day by day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you may never miss the day’s top stories.
Malaysia gave the nod last 12 months to Ocean Infinity to renew the seek for Flight 370 at a brand new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site within the southern Indian Ocean. Ocean Infinity, which has headquarters each within the U.S. and Britain, can be paid $70 million provided that wreckage is discovered.
Loke said Ocean Infinity vessels are expected to be redeployed to the MH370 mission between November and April next 12 months, when calmer sea offers the safest and handiest window for the underwater operations.
© 2026 The Canadian Press