The Search For MH370 Is Being Resumed In A Surprising Way

The Search For MH370 Is Being Resumed In A Surprising Way

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One of the most mysterious air disasters we’ve ever seen involves MH370, which was a Malaysia 777-200 carrying 239 people that mysteriously went missing while enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It’s crazy to think that this happened almost four years ago.

There are still many theories as to what happened, ranging from a catastrophic technical failure, to a horrible murder plot from the captain. While small parts of the plane have been found, a vast majority of the plane hasn’t been, which is shocking given how advanced technology is nowadays.

After an investigation spanning many years, covering 120,000 square kilometers, and costing hundreds of millions of dollars, the search for MH370 was finally called off in early 2017. At the time, Chinese, Australian, and Malaysian authorities issued the following joint statement:

“Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”

About a year after the search was called off, it looks like it’s resuming again, in a most interesting way. Specifically, US seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity is being given the task of finding MH370 wreckage within 90 days. The crazy part? This is entirely on a “no-cure, no-fee” basis. If they find nothing, they get nothing. If they do find something, they’ll get paid as much as $70 million. The search begins on January 17, meaning they’ll have until mid-April to find the wreckage. Per Reuters:

Ocean Infinity will be paid $20 million if the plane is found within 5,000 square km, $30 million if it is found within 10,000 square km and $50 million if it is found within an area of 25,000 square km. Beyond that area, Ocean Infinity will receive $70 million, Mr Liow said.

Its priority is to locate the wreckage or the flight and cockpit recorders, and present credible evidence to confirm their location within 90 days, he added.

The Ocean Infinity vessel has a crew of 65 people, and carries eight autonomous underwater vehicles that will search the floor of the ocean. The ship should be able to cover 60,000 square kilometers in 90 days, which is four times faster than the previous efforts.

At this point it’s interesting that this is entirely being contracted out to a private company. Ocean Infinity must be extremely confident that they’ll find the plane, or else they presumably wouldn’t be willing to do this for no compensation if they don’t find the plane.

Here’s to hoping they find more wreckage from the plane. If nothing else, I imagine it will be comforting for the families of the victims to at least have a better sense of what happened. However, at this point one has to wonder just how spread out the wreckage will be given the current of the ocean, and also how much they’d be able to determine from their findings.

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  1. David M. Engler Guest

    I really think their " Government " knows all the
    FACTS of missing plane FH370 & where it's sitting
    on the Ocean floor right now !

    They DON'T want it to be found .
    Maybe they need to talk to Dr. Richard Godfrey , well
    known Physicist Engineering Certified in deep water
    search .

  2. 747always Guest

    Theres actually nothing " crazy" about it, Lucky. Its actually quite common practice. It would behoove you to either :

    1. Learn more about the world around you and how things worl
    2. Stop using hyperbole every 2 minutes. Its just so extra, that its getting extra sad.

  3. rick bowden Guest

    The morning after the MH disappeared, the US military issue a single statement that the plane was “in the water”. No mention again.
    At that point , investigators were following leads ranging from explosion off coast of Vietnam to crashing or hi-jacking in Southern India and Sri Lanka etc..
    The investigation raged on regarding pilots, plots and piracy.
    If you return to the first morning you have to question the “plane is...

    The morning after the MH disappeared, the US military issue a single statement that the plane was “in the water”. No mention again.
    At that point , investigators were following leads ranging from explosion off coast of Vietnam to crashing or hi-jacking in Southern India and Sri Lanka etc..
    The investigation raged on regarding pilots, plots and piracy.
    If you return to the first morning you have to question the “plane is in the water” statement.
    Who, where, why and how etc..Why such a definite statement?
    A wide body aircraft, deviates from the flight path and then disappears on a scheduled flight and supposedly disappears off Australia
    One would think that in a post 911 world —alarms would be ringing all over SE Asia the minute the plane turns off course.
    Who has the capabilities to track this flight and to make this statement
    Google ,—— Pine Gap , Australia..
    The Military, NASA and CIA have been using Pine Gap for years and recently it is being used to run a drone program in Yemen, Somalia and probably Syria
    It monitors all military -commercial flight landing and taking off in China and of course any ICBM activity in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere.
    It is a downlink for military spy satellites and tons of other technologies that I have no idea exists.
    It is hard to believe that the most sophisticated military surveillance base in the Southern Hemisphere could possible miss a large airliner, off course, flying approximately 2000 miles away from Pine Gap toward a close allied nation that crashes into the water.
    So why not fess up and tell all—Million dollar question!!
    I suspect a decision was made on the first day not to tell all lest they reveal all their capabilities and military gadgets. They decided to stay with the subterfuge as they were trapped with their initial decision not to reveal everything..—I can’t think of any other logical explanation. I can’t understand why this info wouldn’t be passed to the US/ Aussie boats looking for the plane but again 911 revealed how well different intelligence and military share information.
    Again the only conspiracy involved was that of paranoia, stupidity and the oxymoron of military intelligence

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap

  4. Mike Guest

    This honestly seems like a story some branch of the US military made up in order to provide cover for them to do something in that area. No I’m not crazy or a conspiracy theorist. Google US Navy titanic cover up.

  5. Vinod Mirchandani Guest

    The main thing is to find the Black Boxes (flight data recorder & cockpit recorder). They should still be intact. Remember how long it took to find the Black boxes of the Air France that crashed into the Atlantic from Rio de Janiero to Paris. I think it was about 2 years. There are so many theories and it will be very very interesting to find out exactly what happened.

  6. Chris T Guest

    @Debit What a wing nut, simplistic, thing to say!! Not everything is about, government bad, private enterprise good and Dem vs. GOP.

    The government of Malaysia is the one hiring the company. Whether the private company succeeds where Malaysia has not to date succeeded hardly has any bearing on the debate between political parties in the US about the role of government.

    But beyond that, one might argue that the Malaysian government, which probably...

    @Debit What a wing nut, simplistic, thing to say!! Not everything is about, government bad, private enterprise good and Dem vs. GOP.

    The government of Malaysia is the one hiring the company. Whether the private company succeeds where Malaysia has not to date succeeded hardly has any bearing on the debate between political parties in the US about the role of government.

    But beyond that, one might argue that the Malaysian government, which probably has very little expertise and resources for deep sea exploration in a distant location from Malaysia and couldn't do this itself without outside help anyway, cut a very smart deal for its taxpayers, by negotiating a success fee that's only payable if the plane is found (and frees up insurance funds that are now locked up to be released to the government).

  7. Justin H Gold

    @debit your point will be proven when the plane is recovered. A search of epic proportions is underway one which the world has never seen before.

  8. Yvonne Member

    @debit

    If you have the brains and capabilities, will you start your own company or work for the government? It’s nothing to do whether it’s dem or rep in office. Your statement just shows how ignorant of you trying to blame everything to the govt.

  9. snic Diamond

    Well, this just means it was a plot all along by Ocean Infinity: Bring down a plane in such a way that no one could ever find it, then propose to "find" it for a hefty fee.

    (And before you flame me, yes, I'm joking.)

  10. Adam Guest

    @Debit Ridiculous statement. They’ll be taking into account the vast amount of data already collected by public authorities.

    Do you really think they’ll just start a brand new search from scratch?

  11. Ben Guest

    Maybe they've already been looking for it and know exactly where it is ; )

  12. William W New Member

    Would they still be able to retrieve data off the cockpit recorders? 3+ years is a long time for something to be underwater..

  13. Debit Guest

    Finally we will know who is right: republicans or democrats.

    Are governments inherently more incompetent than private firms.

  14. kobe bryant Guest

    I doubt the most part of the plane is still together, probably all over the seabed....

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David M. Engler Guest

I really think their " Government " knows all the FACTS of missing plane FH370 & where it's sitting on the Ocean floor right now ! They DON'T want it to be found . Maybe they need to talk to Dr. Richard Godfrey , well known Physicist Engineering Certified in deep water search .

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747always Guest

*work*

0
747always Guest

Theres actually nothing " crazy" about it, Lucky. Its actually quite common practice. It would behoove you to either : 1. Learn more about the world around you and how things worl 2. Stop using hyperbole every 2 minutes. Its just so extra, that its getting extra sad.

0
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