Ocean Infinity suspends search for MH370
Latest update: The MAS Family Support Centre (Malaysia Aviation Group) emailed the following to the MH370 next of kin on April 15:
April 2 update: Malaysia’s transport minister Anthony Loke said on April 2 that the agreement between Malaysia and Ocean Infinity had been signed the previous week, but the search for MH370 had since been suspended. “I think right now is not the season,” Loke said. “I think they have stopped the operation for the time being. They will resume the search at the end of this year.”
Announcement from the MH370 family support group Voice370:
Ocean Infinity has suspended its search for MH370 and is set to resume its operations in the southern Indian Ocean at the end of this year during the Southern Hemisphere's 2025/2026 summer.
In the southern Indian Ocean, the ‘search season’ is limited by the fact that the weather starts to become rough in May.
There's been no official announcement from Ocean Infinity about the suspension of the search, but Changing Times has received this information from a very reliable source and the company’s Armada 78 06 robotic vessel has already left the search area and is en route to Singapore. Its estimated arrival date in Singapore is April 8.
It is not yet known whether Ocean Infinity found MH370 debris during the latest search operation. It will take several days for the company to finish analysing the data it has collected.
Ocean Infinity’s robotic vessel Armada 78 06 was deployed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a month ago and the company has been using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that can spend up to four days submerged.
The search to date has focused on the following two hotspots:
An area suggested by independent investigators Bobby Ulich and Victor Iannello that had already been partly searched, but which Iannello and Ulich said needed scouring again, with a widened scope. This area, which is about 2,000 km west of Perth, Australia, is centred on 34.2°S 93.8°E.
An area suggested by Jean-Luc Marchand from Belgium and retired Air France pilot Patrick Blelly that had not previously been searched and is around a 35.7°S 93°E centrepoint.
At the beginning of March, Armada 78 06 went to the Australian Marine Complex at Henderson, south of Perth, for refuelling and reprovisioning and then returned to the Blelly/Marchand search zone.
If the vessel had remained in the southern Indian Ocean for longer, it would have needed to refuel and reprovision again in April.
There are two other main hotspots that were not searched in Ocean Infinity’s latest operation:
Broken Ridge, at 32.5°S 96.5°E, which American amateur investigator Blaine Gibson, who has found, retrieved, and/or handed in 22 pieces of debris, and oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi from the University of Western Australia say is the most important priority location. Gibson and Pattiaratchi argue that any new search should not be focused too narrowly along the 7th Arc and should include the area from 28.3°S to 33.2°S.
A location suggested by independent investigator Richard Godfrey centred on 29.128°S 99.934°E. Less than half of the area Godfrey suggests has been previously scoured. Godfrey has conducted analyses using the Global Detection and Tracking of Any Aircraft Anywhere (GDTAAA) software based on Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) data. He has monitored radio signals sent out by radio amateurs around the world. Some investigators find his analysis compelling, but others are more sceptical.
On March 26, the MH370 next of kin announced that Malaysia and Ocean Infinity had signed a ‘no find, no fee’ contract for the exploration company’s search for the plane.
The news was posted on the MH370 Families Facebook page. The next of kin report that the contract was signed remotely, with no ceremony.
A source close to the negotiations has told Changing Times that the contract between Malaysia and Ocean Infinity specifies an 18-month search so would cover a renewed operation during the Southern Hemisphere's 2025/2026 summer..
Ocean Infinity’s new search proposal was presented to Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, (pictured below right) during last year’s 10th anniversary remembrance event in Kuala Lumpur by one of the MH370 next of kin, V.P.R. Nathan, whose wife, Anne Daisy, was on board the plane.
Proposal as presented to Anthony Loke in March last year:
In May last year, Ocean Infinity made a presentation about the new proposal to Loke, senior transport ministry officials, and representatives of other government agencies.
On December 20 last year Loke announced that, on December 13, the Malaysian Cabinet had agreed in principle to accept Ocean Infinity’s proposal “to proceed with seabed search operations to locate the wreckage of flight MH370 in a new area estimated at 15,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean”.
On March 19 this year, the Malaysian Cabinet gave its final approval to the terms and conditions of its agreement with Ocean Infinity for its search for the wreckage of MH370.
Ocean Infinity is seeking a US$70 million fee if the wreckage is found. This is similar to the fee proposed for the search in 2018.
In 2018, Ocean Infinity spent more than three months searching for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The company scoured, and collected data from, more than 112,000 square kilometres of ocean floor, which is far in excess of the initial 25,000-square-kilometre target and almost the same area as was examined in the previous search over a period of two and a half years.
The previous Australian-led underwater search was suspended on January 17, 2017, after an area spanning 120,000 square kilometres was scoured.
MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board. It was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
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