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Malaysia to pay firm up to $70M if it finds missing plane

Malaysia to pay firm up to $70M if it finds missing plane

By Restituto Cayubit

By the Associated Press

Malaysia says it will pay US company Ocean Infinity up to $70 million if it can find the wreckage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within three months.

Malaysian Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai, center, speaks at a press conference during MH370 missing plane search operations signing ceremony between the government of Malaysia and the Ocean Infinity Limited in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

Malaysian Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai, center, speaks at a press conference during MH370 missing plane search operations signing ceremony between the government of Malaysia and the Ocean Infinity Limited in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf/MANILA BULLETIN)

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai says there's an 85 percent chance of finding the debris in a new 25,000 square kilometers (9,653 square miles) area identified by experts.

The government on Thursday signed a "no cure, no fee" deal with the Houston, Texas-based company to resume the hunt for the plane that disappeared nearly four years ago. The official search in the southern Indian Ocean was called off last year.

The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

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