[Peetwo]

Further update by 'that man' from the Oz: 

Malaysia allocates $91m for success fee for finding MH370
Malaysia Airlines.

• Ean Higgins
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM November 1, 2017
  

The Malaysian government has allocated up to $US70 million ($91m) for a “success fee” if a US underwater survey company finds Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 within 90 days of starting a new search.

The move suggests there is considerable momentum to renew the hunt for the Boeing 777 that disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board in what remains one of the world’s greatest unsolved aviation mysteries.

Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said cabinet had agreed “to prepare a special allocation to the Ministry of Transport amounting to between $US20m and $US70m if MH370 aircraft wreckage is successfully found within 90 days”.

Several months ago, Houston-based Ocean Infinity made a “no-find, no-fee” proposal to the Malaysian government that it would assume full financial risk for a renewed search, claiming a payment only if it found the aircraft. Mr Aziz said cabinet had agreed to accept the offer “in principle”.

Sources told The Australian that the Australian government, which contributed $60m of the $200m cost of the previous two-year search, would not be a contributor to Ocean Infinity’s “success fee”. The failed search run by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau scoured 120,000sq km of the southern Indian Ocean, where automatic satellite tracking data indicates MH370 came down.

The ATSB identified a new ­potential search area of 25,000sq km immediately to the north of the last one, and Transport Minister Darren Chester has indicated that is where Ocean ­Infinity will look.

Sources told The Australian that if a contract with the Malaysian government were finalised soon, a new search could start early next year, providing a few months of comparatively favourable conditions before winter and its severe winds and seas sets in.
Ocean Infinity has indicated it would use far more advanced technology to conduct the search much faster than that run by the ATSB, using up to eight ­pilotless miniature submarines at any one time to run sonar scanning missions.

Mr Chester said that at Malaysia’s request, Australia would provide technical assistance to the Malaysian government and Ocean Infinity. “Australia has developed considerable experience given its role in the search to date, and stands ready to support the extended search if it goes ahead,” Mr Chester said.

Many aviation experts, however, believe the previous search failed because the ATSB’s assumptions were flawed. The aircraft reversed course about 40 minutes into a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with its radar transponder turned off and no radio communication.

A number of senior professional pilots and air crash investigators believe the evidence, including parts of the aircraft’s wing surface found mostly intact, shows MH370 captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah hijacked his own aircraft and flew it to the end, outside the ATSB’s search area.

MTF...P2