[Peetwo]

MH370 & a no find, no fee search proposal -

Via Yahoo7 News...

Seabed exploration firm offers to hunt for MH370
AFP on August 3, 2017, 6:50 pm


Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - A US exploration company has offered to take on the search for flight MH370 which was suspended earlier this year, the firm and a Malaysian minister said Thursday, offering new hope to families of the missing.

No trace of the Boeing 777, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board, was found during a lengthy deep sea hunt in the southern Indian Ocean off western Australia, with the search called off in January.

Ocean Infinity, a seabed exploration firm which says it has the world's largest and most advanced commercial fleet of underwater vehicles for conducting searches, said it had proposed continuing the hunt.

"I can confirm that we have made an offer," a spokesman said in an emailed statement to AFP, without giving further details.

Malaysia's Deputy Transport Minister Aziz Kaprawi confirmed a company had made an approach and was only asking for payment in the event they find the plane.

He said the firm had made a "good offer", and added negotiations were ongoing with the country's Department of Civil Aviation.

"The company is demanding payment in the event the wreckage is found," he told AFP.
"We have to work out the details, what we want most is the wreckage and the black box."

He added that the agreement of Australia and China would be needed for a deal to be reached. China, where most of the passengers came from, and Australia were both involved in the search.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian lawyer whose mother Anne Daisy was on the plane, urged authorities to accept the offer.

"There is no point waiting any longer, we really do not lose anything," she said. "It seems to be a perfect offer from a company that is equipped to undertake this search."

So far, three fragments of MH370 have been found on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.

Australia's national science body CSIRO said in April that MH370 was "most likely" lying north of the former search zone -- a 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) area largely defined through satellite "pings" and the flight's estimated fuel load.

But the country's transport minister previously said the underwater probe would not resume unless new evidence about the specific location of the aircraft emerge.

Ocean Infinity has a fleet of six underwater vehicles which can collect seabed data at a depth of 6,000 metres (19,700 feet).

..But the country's transport minister previously said the underwater probe would not resume unless new evidence about the specific location of the aircraft emerge...  
Yet another potential aviation embarrassment for minister Chester...

& also via PT:

What happens if private MH370 search is launched by new tech US firm?

An apparently well resourced privately funded offer to keep looking for MH370 puts the Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities on the spot

Ben Sandilands
Editor of Plane Talking

An Ocean Infinity website graphic

An American oceanographic exploration firm, Ocean Infinity, has offered to launch a radically faster seabed search for the sunk wreckage of missing flight MH370 for an undisclosed fee paid only if it succeeds in finding the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014.

The offer, publicised by independent MH370 researcher Victor Iannello puts authorities in Malaysia, Australia and China on the spot in terms of support, given the controversial suspension of the official tripartite search in January contrary to a recommendation by Australian scientists to make a final examination of a comparatively small section of the southern Indian Ocean seabed to the southwest of Perth, Western Australia.

The Australian transport safety investigator, the ATSB, managed the now suspended oceanic search on behalf of its Malaysia and China partners in the quest to find the wreckage, and locate and recover, if possible, the flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

There is nothing to prevent any entity from searching for the main wreckage from MH370, although there are long standing internationally agreed rules that seek to avoid disturbing any aircraft wreckage pending a examination by an accident inquiry that conforms to the protocols of the International Civil Aviation Organisation which was founded in 1947.
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MH370 was over the Gulf of Thailand early on March 8, 2014, on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, when it abruptly ceased to be visible to air  traffic control systems as a transponder identified flight.

Automatically generated signals from MH370 picked up by an Inmarsat communications satellite indicated that the jet eventually flew into southern Indian Ocean airspace before running out of fuel.

Update: via NYT...

ASIA PACIFIC

[url=https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/08/10/world/asia/ap-as-malaysia-missing-plane.html?partner=IFTTT]US Company Offers to Take Financial Risk of New MH370 Search

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUG. 11, 2017, 12:09 A.M.

CANBERRA, Australia — U.S. seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity said on Friday it had offered to take the financial risk of a renewed search for the missing Malaysian airliner, as victims' families urged the Malaysian government to agree to a private-sector hunt for Flight 370's wreckage.

Malaysia, Australia and China suspended a nearly three-year search in the southern Indian Ocean in January after scouring 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of remote seabed and failing to find any trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Ocean Infinity said it remained hopeful that Malaysia would accept its offer to continue the search using a team of advanced, fast-moving deep-sea drones fitted with sonar equipment.

"The terms of the offer are confidential, but I can ... confirm that Ocean Infinity have offered to take on the economic risk of a renewed search," the company said in an email.

"We're in a constructive dialogue with the relevant authorities and are hopeful that the offer will be accepted," it added.

Voice370, a support group for families of the 239 people on board, said under the terms of the offer made in April, Ocean Infinity "would like to be paid a reward if and only if it finds the main debris field."

"Why hasn't Malaysia accepted this win-win offer?" Voice370 asked in a statement.

Malaysia did not immediately respond on Friday to the families' question.[size=undefined]

An international board of experts has concluded, based on analysis of Boeing 777 debris that drifted and washed up on western Indian Ocean beaches, the flight most likely crashed in a 25,000-square-kilometer (9,700-square-mile) area of ocean on the northern boundary of the last search zone, far southwest of Australia.

But Malaysia, Australia and China agree that the newly identified area is too big to justify resuming the publicly funded search, which has already cost $160 million.

Australia has coordinated the search on Malaysia's behalf because Flight 370 crashed in Australia's zone of search and rescue responsibility on March 8, 2014, after flying far off course on a journey from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

Transport Minister Darren Chester declined to comment on the possibility of a private search.

"Malaysia, as the state of registry for the aircraft, retains overall authority for any future search and any questions regarding possible future search efforts should be directed there," his office said in a statement.

"Australia stands ready to assist the Malaysian government in any way it can," it added.[/size]

MTF...P2