by Donald Wood
Last updated: 4:28 PM ET, Wed January 10, 2018
The Malaysian government revealed Wednesday it will pay a United States company up to $70 million if it is able to find the wreckage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within three months.
According to Reuters.com, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the American company, Ocean Infinity, had an 85 percent chance of finding the debris in a new 9,653 square mile area identified by scientists and industry experts.
MH370 originally vanished on March 8, 2014 and the original search was called off in January 2017. Malaysian officials have worked out a deal with Ocean Infinity that will only require the government to pay the company if they find the wreckage and/or both of the flight recorders.
The payments will be based on the size of the area searched. If Ocean Infinity finds what it's looking for within the allotted time, the government will pay "$20 million for 1,930 square miles of a successful search, $30 million for 5,790 square miles, $50 million for 9,653 square miles and $70 million if the plane or recorders are found beyond the identified area."
Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett said the search vessel Seabed Constructor will be used on the mission, and the ship left the South African port of Durban last week. It is expected to reach the southern Indian Ocean to begin the search by January 17.
"We have a realistic prospect of finding it," Plunkett told the Associated Press. "While there can be no guarantees of locating the aircraft, we believe our system of multiple autonomous vehicles working simultaneously is well suited to the task at hand."
Plunkett revealed the Seabed Constructor will release eight autonomous underwater vehicles to search the bottom of the ocean at a pace of 463 square miles a day.
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