Malaysia agrees to allow US firm to resume MH370 search

The Malaysian government has agreed to an offer by a US exploration firm to resume the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on a "no cure, no fee" basis, Transportation Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Saturday.

The US company, Ocean Infinity, said earlier this week that it was "hopeful of receiving the final contract award for the resumption of the search for MH370 over the coming days", reports Xinhua news agency,.

"Now we have approached Australia and China, and we are working together to resume the search for MH370," he said.

Liow added the contract would be finalized by next week.

Ocean Infinity said it was moving Seabed Constructor, the vessel that the company uses for the search, towards the vicinity of the possible search zone given that the weather window would be relatively narrow.

MH370, carrying 239 on board, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Malaysia, Australia and China suspended the search operation in January 2017 after almost three years' efforts in a 120,000-square-km area in the Southern Indian Ocean failed to find any sign of the wreckage of the plane.

But a report from the Australian Transport Safety Board released later in the year pointed to a new area where the plane could be found.

--IANS

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