Update:

Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, said today (February 20) that the contract for a new search for MH370 by Ocean Infinity was expected to be finalised in the coming days.

“We have yet to sign the contract. The contract is still with the attorney general and the terms should be finalised in the next few days,” Loke told KiniTV when questioned during a dinner function.

He had been asked about reports that an Ocean Infinity vessel was en route to an area of the southern Indian Ocean where MH370 is believed to have crashed.

The draft agreement between the Malaysian government and US-based Ocean Infinity about a new search for MH370 is still undergoing final review in the attorney general’s office in Malaysia.

This was revealed in an email sent to Daniel Schurter at the Swiss online newspaper Watson, published by CH Media, by Lt Col Muhammad Amir bin Abdullah from Malaysia’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau.

Muhammad Amir says in the email dated February 13 that formalisation of the agreement between the Malaysian government and Ocean Infinity was initially scheduled for mid-February this year.

“However, this process has been temporarily postponed, as the agreement is still undergoing final review by the Attorney General’s Office,” the lieutenant colonel writes in answer to one of Schurter’s questions.

Muhammad Amir adds: “While the financial aspects are a significant consideration, the Malaysian government is also evaluating several other critical factors.

“The comprehensive review, which is currently being finalised by the Attorney General’s Office, is ensuring that all pertinent issues are thoroughly addressed before the agreement can be concluded.

“The commencement of the search is contingent upon the finalisation of the agreement between the government of Malaysia and Ocean Infinity.

“Once the agreement has been completed and all necessary formalities are in place, we will be in a position to confirm a definitive start date for the search operations.”

It is now nearly two months since the Malaysian Cabinet agreed in principle to accept Ocean Infinity’s proposal to proceed with seabed search operations to locate the wreckage of flight MH370.

It is nearly 11 years since MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board. It was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

K.S. Narendran, whose wife, Chandrika, was on board the plane when it disappeared, said in a comment on the blog of investigator Richard Godfrey: “When the government does not conclude a search agreement within a reasonable time frame after announcing its intent to resume the search, and remains silent, it just feels like bad faith/deceit and abuse of trust. This is unacceptable.”

The next of kin are rebuilding their lives while learning to live with ‘not knowing’, Narendran says. “The struggle to keep the focus on the search for the plane and answers takes its toll,” he adds.

Narendran says he is anxious that the delay in finalising the agreement could mean that Ocean Infinity will miss the current search window.

He noted in a recent blog post entitled ‘MH370: Flogging a Dead Cause?’ that the search area identified in the southern Indian Ocean is inhospitable territory with rough seas. From January until about April/May, conditions are relatively favourable, he added.

“With every passing week without commencement of the search, the search window in this season shrinks,” Narendran wrote.

On December 20 last year, Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, announced that, on December 13, the 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”.

The CEO of Ocean Infinity, Oliver Plunkett, said after the announcement: “After a long wait, transport minister Anthony Loke’s statement is great news.

“We look forward to sharing further updates in the new year once we’ve finalised the details and the team gets ready to go.”

The company has not issued a further statement since then.

Narendran does point to the fact that, nearly 11 years after the disappearance of MH370, we are not in a ‘rescue phase’ so circumstances are not creating time-frame pressure. “We cannot expect the level of urgency that we would have expected just after the plane disappeared, but we can talk of what would be considered reasonable and acceptable.”

After Loke’s announcement last December, expectations were raised that a new search was imminent, Narendran points out. “It is therefore fair to talk about delay. We are not starting from scratch. There was already a search agreement in 2018.”

Richard Godfrey said recently that he thought the start of a new search was imminent, but, in his latest interview with the editor-in-chief of Airline Ratings, Geoffrey Thomas, he said he now had to conclude that the Malaysian government was not interested in getting Ocean Infinity’s new search underway.

“I have to say I find the Malaysian government’s position and lack of action quite outrageous,” Godfrey told Thomas.

Thomas said sources close to the negotiations had separately told him and Richard Godfrey that, while the Malaysian government had agreed the terms of a ‘no find, no fee’ contract, the contract itself had been sitting with a lawyer for review for almost two months.

“I must stress that we’ve had no confirmation from the government or Ocean Infinity, but our sources, close to the negotiations, are impeccable,” Thomas said.

Godfrey apologised for speculating earlier that the search was about to get underway.

Thomas added: “I also sincerely apologise to the relatives if, in our reporting, we’ve raised false hopes of a search sooner than later … one day there will be a search and hopefully it’ll be towards the end of this year, but, one way or another, this airplane is going to be found.”

Godfrey said his sources had told him that Ocean Infinity now believed there was less than a 20% chance of a new search starting this year.

In its previous search in 2018, Ocean Infinity used a leased Norwegian vessel, Seabed Constructor, and its own Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), capable of operating in depths up to 6,000 metres.

It now has new robotic vessels that can be operated completely remotely, with no crew on board.

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.

Investigators have been following the movements of Ocean Infinity’s robotic vessels Armada 78 08 and Armada 78 06.

Armada 78 08 is now on its way to Cape Town in South Africa and Armada 78 06 is now headed southeast from north of Mauritius and is showing its destination as ‘Offshore Australia’, with an estimated arrival date of February 23.

Godfrey has apologised for the wrong deduction he made earlier after seeing that Armada 78 06 and 78 08 had a rendezvous near Mauritius and that Armada 78 08 “was clearly being prepared for a long time at sea”.

The next of kin had been on a roller-coaster ride, Godfrey said. “It must be very, very difficult for them,” he added. “They only want closure and to know what happened to their loved-ones.”

In May last year, Ocean Infinity made a presentation about the new proposal to Anthony Loke, senior transport ministry officials, and representatives of other government agencies.

Loke said at that time that the matter would need to be presented to the Cabinet before an agreement was finalised and he anticipated that the process would take about three months to complete.

At the MH370 10th anniversary remembrance event in Kuala Lumpur in March last year Loke promised that he would do everything possible to gain Cabinet approval to sign a new contract with Ocean Infinity for the search for MH370 to resume as soon as possible. He said he was confident that the Cabinet would give its approval.

He said that, as transport minister, and representing the Malaysian government, he was at the MH370 remembrance event not just to express the government’s solidarity with the next of kin but “as a commitment and a promise that the search will go on”.

Loke said the Malaysian government would do everything possible to solve the mystery of MH370 – “the biggest aviation mystery in the world” – once and for all.

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.

The indications now are that Ocean Infinity would search between latitudes 33°S to 36°S. Loke said that the company’s contract with the Malaysian government would cover a period of 18 months.

A slide presented at the 10th anniversary remembrance event.

American amateur investigator Blaine Gibson, who has found, retrieved, and/or handed in 22 pieces of debris says he supports Ocean Infinity’s proposal, but, if the plane is not found between latitudes 33°S to 36°S, he would like to see the search extended north to about 28.3°S.

Any search should include the area from 28.3°S to 33.2°S, which is the area suggested by oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi from The University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth, Gibson says.

Gibson and Pattiaratchi argue that any new search should not be focused too narrowly along the 7th Arc.

Richard Godfrey thinks that MH370’s location is further north than previously thought and he has urged Ocean Infinity to search the possible crash location defined in his most recent research: within a radius of 30 km centred on 29.128°S, 99.934°E.

Godfrey has conducted analyses using the Global Detection and Tracking of Any Aircraft Anywhere (GDTAAA) software based on WSPR data, which is publicly available on WSPRnet.

Some investigators find Godfrey’s analysis compelling, but others are more sceptical. Several professional pilots have asserted that WSPR data cannot provide information that is useful for aircraft tracking.

Godfrey monitored radio signals sent out by radio amateurs around the world. Hundreds of these signals are sent out every two minutes.

He explains that, when the radio signals cross the path of an aircraft, it is possible to detect changes in the signal level and in the frequency.

In his own most recent blog post Narendran asks “After Dec ’24’s headline-grabbing announcement regarding another search effort to find MH370, Malaysia has gone silent. What should one make of this?”

He writes: “The prolonged silence is perplexing, even annoying … Was Loke’s December 2024 surprise announcement without a Cabinet consensus, and premature?

“We are left to wonder what new conditionalities are being discussed that are so grossly at variance from the earlier search contract with Ocean Infinity in 2017–18, and what past experience, circumstances or new reservations have emerged from both parties to make the contracting process time consuming.”

The delay will inevitably raise questions about Malaysia’s intent and commitment to a new search and give rise to unhelpful and even unflattering speculations about the Malaysian authorities, Narendran says.

“The continued silence, after raising expectations is unkind and inexplicable. The absence of an update is appalling,” he writes.

“As 8 March approaches and we mark the 11-year anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, we will probably recall with some sadness the continuing story of Malaysia’s reluctance to take charge and be seen as proactive and sincere in the search for MH370, its inability to demonstrate an appetite for answers and the truth and go beyond cliché when referring to closure.”

Narendran adds in his comment on Godfrey’s blog: “I believe it is the unrelenting pressure from scientists, academics and public -spirited individuals … who put forward their expertise, perspectives and safety concerns that will make the difference.

“It would have been great if the global civil aviation ecosystem were more vocal in pushing for answers but that is perhaps asking for too much. For much of the world it is ‘business as usual’.”

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