The families of those who disappeared on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have called for a new search for the plane nine years after it went missing.
In a statement Voice370 – a group of relatives of the 239 people who were on board – called for a seabed exploration firm to launch a hunt for the missing wreckage.
Ocean Infinity is set to use new underwater robots to try and expand on their previous searches for plane parts.
The fate of flight MH370 became one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
In 2018, Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity to search for the aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70 million if it found the plane. But its operation came up short.
The firm’s search came after Malaysia, China and Australia ended a fruitless two-year, $135.36 million underwater hunt in January 2017 after finding no trace of the plane.
The group said that it hopes to launch a new search as soon as this summer and urged Malaysia to accept their proposals on a ‘no find, no fee’ basis.
The company mounted a three-month search using autonomous underwater vehicles in 2018, but found no clues.
However, Voice370 said the firm has over the last year ‘made real progress’ to further understand what happened in 2014.
The company also unveiled ‘cutting edge’ new robotic ships last March, the first of which should be ready for use early this year, which could reinvigorate the so far fruitless hunt.
‘[These are] 78 metres long and are capable of being operated with no people, entirely remotely,’ Ocean Infinity’s chief executive, Oliver Plunkett, said in a speech last March. ‘They’re probably the most modern, cutting-edge ships in the entire world.’
In a statement Voice370 said: ‘As long as we remain in the dark about what happened to MH370, we will never be able to prevent a similar tragedy.
‘It is our fervent hope that 2023 will lead to a search that marks the beginning of the end of the search for Malaysia’s missing MH370.’
Last month Peter Foley, who headed up the initial search, also called for a renewed hunt for the wreckage of MH370, telling the Guardian Australia that new data and equipment – such as the robotic ships – is available.
In a message to families read out at the memorial event, Transport Minister Anthony Loke vowed not to ‘close the book’ on MH370, adding that due consideration would be given to future searches if there was ‘new and credible information’ on the aircraft’s potential location.
Debris confirmed or believed to be from the MH370 aircraft has washed up along the African coast and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
Malaysian investigators previously drew no conclusion about what happened aboard the flight, but did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.
MH370 went missing around 40 minutes into a six hour flight, and a $135 million (£112m) hunt coordinated by Malaysia, China and Australia ended in January 2017, having found no signs of the aircraft.
While some debris believed to be from the aircraft has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean, the void of information has allowed theories – including conspiracies such as a mass hypoxia event, or deliberate murder-suicide by the pilot – to proliferate.
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