After a Decade of Dead Ends, $70 Million Rides on Locating Flight MH370 (theguardian.com)
(Monday December 29, 2025 @05:40PM (msmash)
from the no-find-no-fee dept.)
- Reference: 0180475769
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/29/1952225/after-a-decade-of-dead-ends-70-million-rides-on-locating-flight-mh370
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/29/malaysian-airlines-flight-mh370-mystery-search-indian-ocean-infinity-robots
More than a decade after [1]Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished over the Indian Ocean en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the marine robotics company that [2]located Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance is [3]preparing to resume its hunt for the missing Boeing 777 . Ocean Infinity, a UK and US-based seabed survey firm, began searching a 15,000 sq km priority area in the Indian Ocean in February but called off the expedition in April after 22 days due to poor weather conditions.
The company plans to resume operations on December 30 for 55 days under a $70 million "no find, no fee" contract from the Malaysian government. The company has already covered nearly 10,000 sq km and intends to search another 25,000 sq km. Richard Godfrey, an independent aviation investigator, estimates Ocean Infinity has spent "tens of millions of dollars" on ships and equipment. "I don't think they're in this for the monetary reward of $70m, because this search is very, very expensive," Godfrey says. "I think they're in this for the achievement and their ability to market themselves as the greatest underwater-search firm in the world because they found MH370."
The search relies on Hugin 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles capable of mapping the ocean floor at depths up to 6,000 metres using sonar, laser, and acoustic technology. Each AUV can operate independently for 100 hours before surfacing. The machines carry magnetometers that can detect metal buried under several metres of sediment. The story adds:
> One of the biggest challenges Ocean Infinity faces is the risk of being very close to the MH370 wreckage and missing it because of difficult terrain or gaps in the survey data.
[1] https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=MH370
[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/03/09/1452242/endurance-ernest-shackletons-ship-lost-in-1915-is-found-in-antarctica
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/29/malaysian-airlines-flight-mh370-mystery-search-indian-ocean-infinity-robots
The company plans to resume operations on December 30 for 55 days under a $70 million "no find, no fee" contract from the Malaysian government. The company has already covered nearly 10,000 sq km and intends to search another 25,000 sq km. Richard Godfrey, an independent aviation investigator, estimates Ocean Infinity has spent "tens of millions of dollars" on ships and equipment. "I don't think they're in this for the monetary reward of $70m, because this search is very, very expensive," Godfrey says. "I think they're in this for the achievement and their ability to market themselves as the greatest underwater-search firm in the world because they found MH370."
The search relies on Hugin 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles capable of mapping the ocean floor at depths up to 6,000 metres using sonar, laser, and acoustic technology. Each AUV can operate independently for 100 hours before surfacing. The machines carry magnetometers that can detect metal buried under several metres of sediment. The story adds:
> One of the biggest challenges Ocean Infinity faces is the risk of being very close to the MH370 wreckage and missing it because of difficult terrain or gaps in the survey data.
[1] https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=MH370
[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/03/09/1452242/endurance-ernest-shackletons-ship-lost-in-1915-is-found-in-antarctica
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/29/malaysian-airlines-flight-mh370-mystery-search-indian-ocean-infinity-robots
It's on the island from "Lost". (Score:2)
by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 )
*Spoiler Alert* - The smoke monster killed most of them.
SpaceX starship probably sitting on top (Score:2)
by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 )
They keep landing them in the same area.
They won't find it (Score:2)
by Cpt_Kirks ( 37296 )
They're looking in the wrong area.
EVERYONE KNOWS the Russians did it.
yes yes, they're in it for the exposure not the $ (Score:1)
translation: guaranteed false positive, and that's what they're buying, cuz there's no way someone gets into a position to dole out a $70m reward and NOT grok that ppl will cheat to get it.
They're buying closure and don't much care about the results
how hard is it to fake an black box with data? (Score:2)
how hard is it to fake an black box with data?
Re:how hard is it to fake an black box with data? (Score:5, Interesting)
how hard is it to fake an black box with data?
They're not retrieving anything, that I am aware of. All they are looking for is the plane itself which is most likely made more difficult because if the plane went into the ocean like a rock, there won't be much of it to find. Pieces scattered over who knows how many square miles.
If it was a "controlled" splash, meaning the pilot somehow glided the plane across the surface, such as on the Hudson River or the one which happened years earlier just off some resort (which I can't find), then you should have large enough pieces to be detected, assuming they're not hidden by undersea hills or mountains or fell into crevasses.
As for the black boxes, at this point no data should be retrievable. The salt water most likely damaged the recordings beyond recovery. Unless, by some quirk, the boxes are still sealed in which case we may finally have some answers.
As to faking the data, these folks wouldn't touch it. They would pass it over to Malaysian authorities. What happens from there is anyone's guess. I am certain other countries and outside experts would want a look as well so faking the data should be out of the question.
Re: (Score:2)
> ... such as on the Hudson River or the one which happened years earlier just off some resort (which I can't find), then you should have large enough pieces to be detected, assuming they're not hidden by undersea hills or mountains or fell into crevasses.
Seriously, you couldn't find this? Did you try the terms "hudson river plane crash"?
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty sure the comment was in regards to the [1]Lion Air Flight 904 [wikipedia.org] crash not the Hudson. They refer to a flight that crashed off the coast and then say that they can't find it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Air_Flight_904
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt that anyone would give them $70M just for saying "Uh, yup, we sure did find it. You betcha." A payout would require independent confirmation: Ocean Infinity says "go to such-and-such coordinates and you'll find airplane bits", along with their substantiation, and then someone does just that. Confirmation via video feed ought to be sufficient, and perhaps backed up by bringing some bit of identifiable wreckage to the surface. Confirmation would presumably be Indonesia's or Malaysia's job.
Yea
Re: (Score:2)
At the same time $70M doesn't get put on the line for anything without a pack of lawyers wiring up a contract and conditions both parties agree to.
Malaysia and Ocean Infinity have contracted terms of what constitutes "finding" means here. At the same clip they could find it and Malaysia simply not pay, "satellites show their ship stopped here for longer than usual, let's just look there ourselves".