A marine robotics firm is resuming the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing more than 10 years ago.
Ocean Infinity, which operates underwater robotic vehicles and has a base in Southampton, took part in previous searches which ended in 2018.
Malaysia’s transport minister Anthony Loke said the company has agreed in principle to searches in a new area in the southern Indian Ocean.
If it is successful in finding a substantive amount of wreckage it will receive $70m (£56m), Mr Loke told a news conference.
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MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014. The Boeing 777 aircraft was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.
“Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin,” Mr Loke said.
“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.”
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The aircraft’s disappearance has become one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries. Some families have claimed there was an intentional cover-up, that the plane was crashed deliberately, potentially as part of a murder-suicide.
But there has been no conclusive proof and Malaysian officials have been unable to determine the real cause.
An underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China covered an area of 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq mile) of the southern Indian Ocean.
Some debris from the aircraft has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.
The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, on 8 March 2014.
The flight to Beijing had 227 passengers on board, mostly Chinese nationals, and 12 crew.
Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search covering a 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq mile) area failed to turn up any clues.
A 495-page report into the disappearance in 2018 said the plane’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to go off course.
Investigators stopped short of offering a conclusion on what happened, saying that depended on finding the wreckage.
Investigators found nothing suspicious in the background, financial affairs, training and mental health of both the captain and co-pilot.
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More than 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight and some families of those missing have consistently demanded the search resumes and compensation from Malaysia Airlines, among others.
Mr Loke said the arrangement with Ocean Infinity is a “no find, no fee” deal and his ministry hopes to finalise negotiations for the terms in early 2025.
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Ocean Infinity’s CEO Oliver Plunkett said the agreement in principle to resume searches was “great news”.
In a statement to Sky News, he said he planned to share more details in the new year “once we’ve finalised the details and the team gets ready to go”.
In 2022, Ocean Infinity was involved in the discovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s lost vessel, The Endurance, which sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915.
