Malaysia has agreed to resume the search for the missing passenger plane

The Malaysian government says it has agreed in principle to resume the search for a passenger plane that disappeared 10 years ago in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board.

Efforts to identify the wreckage of the Boeing 777 have faltered for years, and hundreds of families of those on board are still reeling from the tragedy.

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Friday that the cabinet had approved in principle a $70m (£56m) deal with US maritime intelligence firm Ocean Infinity to find the plane.

Under the no-find-no-fee arrangement, Ocean Infinity will only get paid if the wreckage is found.

A 2018 search for Ocean Infinity under similar conditions ended without success after three months.

The multinational effort, which cost $150 million, ended in 2017 after two years of cleaning the vast waters.

While the government has “in principle” accepted Ocean Infinity’s offer, Locke said negotiations on the specific terms of the deal are still ongoing and will be finalized early next year.

The new search will cover 15,000 square kilometers in the southern Indian Ocean, based on new data that Kuala Lumpur deemed “reliable”, the minister said.

“We hope this is a positive time,” Locke said, adding that finding the wreckage will bring closure to the families of those on board.

Relatives of MH370 passengers welcomed the Malaysian government’s approval of the new search.

“I’m very happy with this news… It’s like the best Christmas present ever,” Jaquita Gonzalez, wife of flight MH370 pilot Patrick Gomez, told the New Straits Times.

“This announcement evokes mixed emotions – hope, gratitude and sadness. After almost 11 years, the uncertainty and pain of not having answers has been incredibly difficult for us,” Intan Maizura Otaman also told the newspaper. Her husband, Mohd Hazreen Mohammed Hasnan, was a crew member.

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the plane, told the Reuters news agency that the Malaysian government should have a “more open approach” to the search to allow more players to take part.

Flight MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur on the morning of March 8, 2014. He lost contact with air traffic control less than an hour after takeoff, and radar indicated he had deviated from his planned flight path.

Investigators generally agree that the plane crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean — although it’s not clear why.

Pieces of debris believed to be from the plane washed up on the shores of the Indian Ocean years after the disappearance.

There have been many conspiracy theories surrounding the plane’s disappearance, from speculation that the pilot deliberately shot down the plane to claims that it was shot down by a foreign military.

An investigation into the plane’s disappearance in 2018 found that the plane’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to send it off course, but did not lead to a conclusion on who was behind it.

Investigators said at the time that “the answer can only be definitive when the wreckage is found.”