A US company will be paid between US$20 million and US$70 million ($26 to $91 million) if it finds any trace of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 within 90 days of beginning a new search.
Malaysia’s deputy transport minister says the nation’s cabinet has accepted “in principle” an offer from Ocean Infinity to search a 25,000 square kilometre area for the plane.
Ocean Infinity offered to search for the plane on a “no-find, no-fee” basis.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi said that cabinet ministers had agreed “to prepare a special allocation to the Ministry of Transport amounting to between US$20 million up to US$70 million if MH370 aircraft wreckage is successfully found within 90 days”.
Australia will provide technical assistance for the search by seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity but will not contribute to the reward fee if the plane is found.
Ocean Infinity will focus on searching the seafloor in an area that has previously been identified by experts as the next most likely location to find MH370, just to the north of the original search area.
MH370 vanished from radar screens on March 8, 2014, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.