KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government has approved a new attempt to find the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean, the transport minister said on Saturday.
A US-based company this week dispatched the search vessel Seabed Constructor to look for debris in the southern Indian Ocean, almost four years after the Boeing 777 disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew.
The governments of Malaysia, China and Australia called off the 1,046-day official search on Jan 17 last year without solving the mystery. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's final report conceded that authorities were no closer to knowing the reasons for the plane's disappearance, or its exact location.
"The basis of the offer from Ocean Infinity is based on 'no cure, no fee,'" Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Saturday. It means that payment will be made only if the company finds the wreckage.
"That means they are willing to search the area of 25,000 square kilometres pointed out by the expert group near the Australian waters," he said.
However, he added, "I don't want to give too much hope ... to the [victims' families]." He said his government was committed to continuing with the search.
Ocean Infinity said that its vessel, which left the South African port of Durban on Tuesday, was taking advantage of favourable weather to move toward "the vicinity of the possible search zone".