A Texas robotics company gets approval to search for MH370 in a new part of the Indian Ocean

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago.

Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.

The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.

The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.

Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn’t provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search.

“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,” he said in a statement.

Family members of passengers who were on board the MH370 Malaysia Airline jet that went missing in 2014 leave after meeting Chinese Foreign Ministry officials in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese security personnel patrol the street near a meeting of family members of passengers who were on board the MH370 Malaysia Airline jet that went missing in 2014 in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" as he talks to media on the 11th anniversary of the jet going missing, Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese police officers monitor journalists gathered near a meeting of family members of passengers who were on board the MH370 Malaysia Airline jet that went missing in 2014 in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Jiang Hui, right, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" as he talks to media near other family members of victims Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

FILE - A Malaysian boy wipes his tears during a special prayer for the ill fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at a church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Joshua Paul,File)

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" as he talks to media on the 11th anniversary of the jet going missing, Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airline passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" checks his phone after talking to media on the 11th anniversary of the jet going missing Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three people and wounded 14, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, despite agreeing to a limited ceasefire.

Zaporizhzhia was hit by 12 drones, police said. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said that residential buildings, cars and communal buildings were set on fire in the Friday night attack. Photos showing emergency services scouring the rubble for survivors.

Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, though it remains to be seen what possible targets would be off-limits to attack.

The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered. While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be part of the agreement, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.

The dead in Zaporizhzhia were three members of one family. The bodies of the daughter and father were pulled out from under the rubble while doctors unsuccessfully fought for the mother’s life for more than 10 hours, Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired a total of 179 drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday. It said 100 were intercepted and a further 63 lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

Officials in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions also reported fires breaking out due to the falling debris from intercepted drones.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said its air defense systems shot down 47 Ukrainian drones.

Local authorities said two people were injured and there was damage to six apartments when a Ukrainian drone hit a high-rise apartment block in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Friday night.

Zelenskyy told reporters after Wednesday’s call with Trump that Ukraine and U.S. negotiators will discuss technical details related to the partial ceasefire during a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday. Russian negotiators are also set to hold separate talks with U.S. officials there.

Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine is open to a full, 30-day ceasefire that Trump has proposed, saying: “We will not be against any format, any steps toward unconditional ceasefire.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilization — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.

Kremlin spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday that Ukraine was continuing with “treacherous attacks” on energy infrastructure facilities, and that Russia reserved the right to a “symmetrical” response.

Her comments came after Russia accused Ukrainian forces Friday of blowing up a gas metering station near the town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine’s military General Staff rejected Moscow’s accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the station as part of Russia’s “discrediting campaign.”

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Rescuers work on site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

A clock with a family photo is seen among debris of a residential house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Police officers carry the body of a person killed by a Russian drone strike in a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Rescuers work on site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

A clock with a family photo is seen among debris of a residential house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Police officers carry the body of a person killed by a Russian drone strike in a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)