MH370 Search May Not Be Over

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The government of Malaysia is considering a proposal from seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity, a U.S. company, to resume the search for Malaysia Airlines MH370, according to news reports on Thursday. MH370 vanished in March 2014 in the southern Indian Ocean, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people aboard. Ocean Infinity has offered to search on a “no find, no fee” arrangement, according to Australian officials. The latest search, coordinated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, was suspended in January, after exploring about 46,000 square miles of seafloor. Those searchers identified a smaller area of about 10,000 square miles they said had “a high probability” as the site of the aircraft. Ocean Infinity’s search will focus on that part of the sea floor.

The ATSB released its two final reports on the search earlier this month. In all, 661 areas of interest were identified in the sonar imagery of the seafloor. Of these areas, 82 with the most promise were investigated and eliminated as being related to MH370. “The reasons for the loss of MH370 cannot be established with certainty until the aircraft is found,” the report concludes. “It is almost inconceivable and certainly societally unacceptable in the modern aviation era with 10 million passengers boarding commercial aircraft every day, for a large commercial aircraft to be missing and for the world not to know with certainty what became of the aircraft and those on board.” About $200 million has been spent on the search so far.

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