Will Flight MH370 Be Found? Families Want Malaysia To Allow Private Search

mh370 update — A family member of a passenger aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing in 2014, wears a hat that reads "Pray for MH370" during a protest outside the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, July 29, 2016. Reuters

A U.S. seabed exploration company, Ocean Infinity, said Friday it was awaiting confirmation from Malaysia to accept its offer to help find the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. Malaysia's delay in agreeing to the private search for the plane has raised concerns among the families of the passengers on board the jet.

Ocean Infinity said it would want to look for the missing Boeing 777-200 jet in the southern Indian Ocean using advanced, deep-sea drones that will search the sea floor using sonar equipment. Malaysian authorities are currently in talks with the company about the suggested search operation which would come months after the multimillion-dollar hunt for the missing plane was suspended earlier this year after no concrete clues were found about the location of the plane.

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"The terms of the offer are confidential, but I can... confirm that Ocean Infinity has offered to take on the economic risk of a renewed search," the company wrote in an email to CTV News. "We're in a constructive dialogue with the relevant authorities and are hopeful that the offer will be accepted."

A statement released by the group Voice 370 on Thursday urged authorities to explain as to why have they not responded to the offer made by the U.S. company.

"Why hasn't Malaysia accepted this win-win offer?" the statement said, stressing that the company wanted payment for the search from Malaysia only if it succeeded in finding the missing plane.

Ocean Infinity "would like to be paid a reward if and only if it finds the main debris field," the support group for families of the 239 people on board said, adding that the offer was made more than four months ago but had not yet been accepted. They demanded Malaysia to accept it "without further delay" so the families of those missing could get some closure.

MH370 went missing while on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. An underwater hunt for the plane was carried out for more than three years. Search vessels scoured a 46,000 square mile area of the southern Indian Ocean but the plane was not found. However, some plane debris washed up on island nations in the Indian Ocean.

"We are constantly in limbo. They (authorities involved in the search) do not engage us. It is upsetting and frustrating," Grace Nathan, whose mother was on the plane, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "We are always kept in the dark."

Last month, Malaysia Airline's CEO Peter Bellew expressed confidence about finding the plane with the help of advances in science and technology, including artificial intelligence, according to the Australian newspaper.

"There will be advances in science that will help locate the wreckage eventually," Bellew said, adding the discovery "might unlock closure for some people." He also said that advances could come through "the availability of artificial intelligence that's coming on stream," high-capacity computing power and university research.