Latest news with #OliverPunkett
CBS News
20-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Texas robotics company gets approval to search for MH370 in new part of ocean
Malaysia's government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago . Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a "no-find, no-fee" contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 5,800-square-mile site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered. 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 is believed to have crashed. An expensive multinational search — the largest in aviation history — failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing. The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site. Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn't provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search. "The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370," he said in a statement.
Telegraph
20-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Malaysia approves new search for missing flight MH370
Malaysia has approved a new search for the missing flight MH370, which vanished while travelling between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing with 239 people on board more than a decade ago. The country's cabinet authorised a 'no find, no fee' contract with Ocean Infinity, a UK-based marine robotics company, to probe a 15,000 sq km area in the southern Indian Ocean. If successful in the search, the firm will receive £56 million. But the wreckage and the missing black boxes would also help solve one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries. It is now more than a decade since MH370 disappeared from air traffic controllers' screens on March 8 2014, less than an hour after take-off. Friends and relatives of those on board have long been haunted by what happened to them. Although debris believed to be part of the Boeing 777 plane has washed up on the shores of the Indian Ocean in the years since, extensive searches for the wreckage by the three nations involved – Malaysia, China and Australia – have so far proven futile. A multi-national search that covered 74,000 sq km was abandoned in 2017, while a separate hunt by Ocean Infinity involving autonomous underwater vehicles was called off in May 2018 after just three months. At that point, the Malaysian government said efforts would be resumed only if 'credible new evidence' emerged. Oliver Punkett, the Ocean Infinity CEO, said this year that the technology available to launch a search had improved, and that analysts had refined their estimates of where the aircraft may have plunged into the sea. The deal with Malaysia was agreed in principle in December, and the firm has already deployed a search vessel to the target zone 1,200 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia, to capitalise on better conditions before winter arrives in the southern hemisphere. The vessel – a state-of-the art, 250-foot-long ship called Armada 78 06 – is operated via a satellite link from Ocean Infinity's control centre in Southampton. Equipped with 3D-imagers, sonars, lasers and cameras, it can spend up to four days submerged, and descend to 6km below the surface. Anthony Loke Siew Fook, Malaysia's transport minister, said in a statement announcing the new contract that his government 'is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the MH370 passengers'.
Arab Times
20-03-2025
- Business
- Arab Times
Malaysia approves new search for MH370 more than a decade after plane disappeared
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 20, (AP): Malaysia's government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago. Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a "no-find, no-fee' contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered. 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 is believed to have crashed. An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing. The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site. Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn't provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search. "The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,' he said in a statement.
NBC News
20-03-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Malaysia approves a new search for MH370 more than a decade after the plane disappeared
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia 's government has given final approval for a Texas -based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago. Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a 'no-find, no-fee' contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 5,800-square-mile site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered. 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 is believed to have crashed. An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing. The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site. Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but did not provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search. 'The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of Flight MH370,' he said in a statement.
The Hill
20-03-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Malaysia approves a new search for MH370 more than a decade after the plane disappeared
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago. Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a 'no-find, no-fee' contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered. 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 is believed to have crashed. An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing. The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site. Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn't provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search. 'The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,' he said in a statement.
