Malaysia Pays IDR 1.1 Trillion Of Marine Robotics Company Cari Bangkai Aircraft Lost 1 Decade Then

Boeing 777 airline Malaysia Airlines. (Wikipedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The Malaysian Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) announced that it will reopen search operations for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines on December 30.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers disappeared from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014. Most of the passengers were Chinese nationals.

"This latest development underscores the Malaysian government's commitment to providing a solution for families affected by this tragedy," the Malaysian Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) said in a statement quoted from AFP, Wednesday, December 3.

The search again after a decade of the disappearance of the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing aircraft will involve US-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity.

The company will assist with a 55-day search operation starting at the end of December 2025. The focus of the search on target areas that are believed to have a high probability of finding the missing plane.

Malaysia paid Ocean Infinity 70 million US dollars or around IDR 1.1 trillion in this search operation. But on condition, if the plane debris is found.

Previously, the search operation involved this expensive multinational company failing to find the location of the plane's wreck, although debris was previously seen stranded on the east African coast and the Indian Ocean Islands. Ocean Infinity's 2018 private search also found nothing.