KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 ― The government is still negotiating terms with the private US contractor reportedly chosen to lead a new search effort for missing flight MH370, the Department of Civil Aviation said today.
Ocean Infinity was the successful bidder among several companies that vied for the job but no agreement has been reached yet, the department’s director-general Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in a statement.
“The MH370 Response Team has received several proposals…this include an offer by a company known as Ocean Infinity on a “No Cure No Fee” basis.
“In this regard, the Government of Malaysia has given the permission for the response team to proceed negotiating the terms and conditions with Ocean Infinity,” the statement read.
“We wish to also inform that at this juncture, the Malaysian Government has yet to arrive into an agreement with Ocean Infinity for the search of MH370 as widely reported in the media recently”.
Yesterday several foreign media organisations reported that both parties had inked a deal.
News that Putrajaya and Ocean Infinity were in talks for a new search effort for MH370 broke on Monday.
Both the Australian and Chinese governments have been informed about the new search effort and the ongoing negotiations with Ocean Infinity, DCA said.
“Once the negotiation is completed and the terms and conditions have been agreed with Ocean Infinity, the Malaysian Government will then seek agreement from the Governments of Australia and China to proceed with the search of MH370 in the spirit of tripartite cooperation,” the department said.
Earlier this month, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau published its final 440-page report into the search, which spanned 1,046 days from the time the Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, until it was suspended in January.
Talks about a new search effort for the missing Boeing 777 surfaced after Australian experts claimed that new satellite data could pinpoint the plane’s location with “unprecedented” accuracy.
