Report: Australian who led MH370 search backs fresh effort to find missing plane
KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Peter Foley, the man who led the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 as programme director under the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) 10 years ago called on the Australian government to support a new search operation to discover what happened to the missing plane.
Foley said that the longer the search is delayed, the likelihood of recovering any flight data reduces, UK news site The Guardian reported yesterday.
“The last search was 2018, that’s six years ago. And I feel desperately sad for the families of the 239 people on board that aircraft who still have no answers.
“We just need another search.
“Because I know there’s absolutely no chance that the aircraft would be found unless we’re looking for it,” Foley said.
Finding the plane would require funding from the Australian government, he asserted.
The previous search by ATSB from May 2014 until January 2017 covered 120,000 square kilometres.
During ATSB’s search, some debris from the missing plane washed up on islands in the Indian Ocean and along the African coast.
In 2018, Putrajaya engaged with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to conduct a second search which unfortunately did not bear fruit.
However, the robotics company’s chief executive officer Oliver Plunkett expressed his hope that the search would resume this year.
“We remain interested in returning to the search for MH370 and are actively engaged in trying to make this happen.
“We now feel in a position to be able to return to the search for missing aircraft MH370 and have submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government.
“We hope to get back to the search soon,” Plunkett said in a statement.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he would be happy to reopen the search for flight MH370 if “compelling” evidence emerged.
Two days ago, Transport Minister Anthony Loke voiced his commitment to find answers for the families of flight MH370’s victims and revealed that the government was considering resuming the search conducted by Ocean Infinity.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 aircraft carrying 239 people, disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
