Aviation
Miss Malaysia plane: Authorities open search to Private Contractors
SYDNEY — Authorities will open up the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to private contractors next week, with the launch of a public tender that could take two months to complete, a person familiar with the search said.
Malaysian, Chinese and Australian authorities are seeking a single contractor to coordinate an expanded undersea search of a remote patch of the Indian Ocean covering 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles). The successful bidder will be responsible for bringing together ships, crew and technology to look for the missing jetliner, the person said.
The tender documents will outline basic information, including the area to be explored, the money available and the expected time frame for the search. However, private contractors will be free to devise their own strategies to find the plane for the money made available, the person said.
Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in April that the expanded underwater search would cost around 60 million Australian dollars (US$55 million). However, the person said this estimate includes the cost of mapping the sea floor, meaning the budget available to a private contractor to carry out the subsea search would be significantly less.
Separately, authorities are close to signing up a privately-owned deep sea survey vessel to help produce bathymetric maps of the ocean floor approximately 1,000 miles northwest of the Western Australia capital Perth where they believe the plane crashed. This new ship would work with the Chinese survey vessel Zhu Kezhen, which has already begun mapping the area.
The survey is likely to take 2-3 months to complete, the person said. Its results will enable towed sonar equipment to be deployed without the risk of it banging into undersea ridges and mountains.
The Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield is due to give up the search on Wednesday, having scoured a narrow area close to where it detected electronic signals on four occasions in early April. Authorities believed those transmissions were consistent with locator beacons on an aircraft’s black box flight recorders, raising hopes of a breakthrough in the hunt for Flight 370, which went missing en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 with 239 people on board.
Commander James Lybrand, who captained the Ocean Shield through April, this month told The Wall Street Journal that the Bluefin-21 submersible drone used in the search so far had faced difficulty navigating crevasses up to 70 meter deep and depths that had plunged to more than 5,000 meters.
The introduction of a private contractor aims to overcome these obstacles with new equipment. Companies in the marine salvage and oil and gas sectors could take part in the search, along with nonprofit research organizations.
Seattle-based salvage group Williamson & Associates, which together with professional wreck hunter David Mearns, helped discover the sunken destroyer HMAS Sydney in 2008—a breakthrough met with jubilation in Australia where the ship and its 645 passengers were missing for 67 years. Art Wright, the company’s operations manager, said private contractors would likely want to reanalyze the ping signals picked up by searchers in early April to double check that they coincided with black box locator beacons.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Phoenix International Holdings Inc. are potential candidates after helping on the deep sea recovery of the black boxes and debris from Air France Flight 447 which crashed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. Other groups in the running to be involved in the search could include Oceaneering International Inc., Dutch company Fugro NV, University of Southampton in the U.K, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California and the University of Hawaii, people familiar with the matter said.
Already searchers suspect that two ping transmissions detected by the Ocean Shield on April 8 might not be man-made, while some other signals picked up by sonar buoys and by U.K. naval vessel HMS Echo have since been shown to come from surface craft.
A search using a submersible sonar device towed behind a boat would likely cost between US$70,000-US$80,000 a day for each ship used, including crew, equipment, fuel and vessel charter fees, according to Mr. Wright.
– WALLSTREET JOURNAL
An Air Peace flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt has suffered a disruption, after the aircraft was affected by a bird strike on arrival at the Port Harcourt International Airport.
The airline made the disclosure on Thursday in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Osifo-Whiskey Efe.
He added that the incident necessitated safety checks on the affected aircraft and the deployment of another aircraft to convey passengers on subsequent flights.
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“We deeply empathise with passengers affected by this unforeseen incident and are working diligently to minimise disruptions,” Efe said.
The latest incident adds to the growing challenge of bird strikes faced by local airlines.
In December 2025, Air Peace disclosed that it recorded 49 bird strikes across Nigeria between January and September, stressing that even a single strike could ground an aircraft for weeks.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the airline, Allen Onyema, had said on Arise TV that bird strikes constituted a major operational challenge, often leading to costly repairs and serious disruptions to flight schedules.
“One bird strike could cripple your aircraft for the next month. At that moment, there is no two ways about it. These bird strikes often lead to costly delays and serious disruptions in flight schedules,” he said.
He added that losses from such incidents compound other challenges facing Nigerian airlines, including heavy taxation and operational constraints.
With the firm belief that it is both sadistic and absolutely despicable, the recently announced outrageous hike in airfares to South East from Abuja to Lagos for Yuletide of 2025 by over 131 percent by Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines, the owners have been asked to immediately have a rethink and review backward these harsh, toxic and unfriendly airfares targeting Igbo passengers exclusively.
Making the charge to the chairmen of Air Peace and United Nigeria airlines, Mr. Allen Ugochukwu and Mr. Obiora Okonkwo, the prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) expressed anger that these businesses whose proprietors are Igbo by birth are fond of making it so difficult for hundreds of thousands of Igbo passengers residing outside of the South-East to travel home on Christmas festivities.
The rights group say that for many years now, because Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines are monopolies and then Igbos have the tradition exclusively in Nigeria of going home to South East from all over the globe during Yuletides, these few airlines have decidedly fixed toxic ticketing airfares for Igbos whereas northerners who also travel during their religious festivities of salah are not subjected to such exploitative treatments.
The HURIWA accused the two airlines of price fixing, which is anti-competition just as the Rights group said it is giving these two Igbo-hating airlines to review backward their toxic and discriminatory airfares within ten working days from today or it will petition the federal government publicly funding consumer rights body[Federal Competition and Consumer Rights Commission) in Abuja.
The HURIWA wonders if these Igbo owners of private airlines known for making their planes available to government for free during emergencies are in a conspiratorial plots with haters of Igbo land who are unhappy at the convivial and happy atmospheres in the South East during Yuletide, just as the rights group has appealed to Igbo governors to immediately intervene and urge Mr. Allen Ugochukwu and Mr Obiora Okonkwo to treat the Igbo just as they treat for instance northern Muslims who also migrate home to northern Nigeria from around the globe during their Muslim festivities because what is good for the goose, is good for the gander.
The HURIWA said that if Air Peace Airlines have gotten involved in many humanitarian efforts of airlifting Nigerians from outside of our shores for free, it becomes of the Airline ought not to maltreat their clients of Igbo extraction.
The HURIWA quoted from the business official website of Air Peace in which it described its latest humanitarian effort to be an addition to a growing list of interventions by Dr. Allen Onyema and Air Peace.
Quoting Air Peace website, HURIWA stated that Air Peace said thus: “In 2019, the airline airlifted 503 Nigerians free of charge from South Africa amidst xenophobic attacks. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Air Peace conducted multiple repatriation flights. In 2022, the airline flew Nigerian evacuees out of war-torn Ukraine. In May 2023, Dr. Onyema again deployed Air Peace aircraft to evacuate 277 stranded Nigerians from Sudan.
As the rescued women prepare to begin a new chapter, supported by medical care and reintegration efforts, one truth stands out: Air Peace is more than just an airline — it is a bridge of hope for Nigerians in crisis, and a national symbol of empathy, courage and service,” HURIWA conclusively quoted Air Peace.
The HURIWA therefore strongly condemns the two airlines for hiking and fixing unaffordable airfares indiscriminately against Igbo passengers, even as the festive season draws near, Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines have raised their return ticket fares to N677,000, a move that could add financial strain on travellers. The rise in airfares reflects the high demand expected during the holiday rush.
Key Points
Air Peace and United Nigeria increase return ticket fares to N677,000 for the yuletide season.
Airfares on routes to the South-East, including Enugu and Anambra, experience the highest surge.
Ibom Air offers comparatively cheaper tickets, with return fares at N381,600.
Air Peace’s one-way fare for December to January peaks at N350,500.
United Nigeria will also charge N350,500 for select routes between December 11 and the end of the year.
Northern routes, including Lagos-Kano, face smaller increases, with fares starting from N106,900.
Experts predict even higher airfares, with one-way tickets possibly reaching N500,000.
The rise in flight prices signals the start of a challenging holiday travel season, with airfares higher than usual due to increased demand. Travelers must be prepared for the surge, with some routes seeing even higher fare projections.
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The HURIWA is hereby warning the two airlines to withdraw their price fixing malpractices against Igbos or else the Rights group would seek justice and redress for the millions of Igbos who would return home for the 2025 Yuletide from the Federal Competition and Consumer Rights Commission and the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria. The HURIWA threatened to drag the two airlines to the Nigerian President through the Honourable Minister of Aviation and Transportation.
An Abuja-Accra flight experienced technical difficulties mid-air on Friday, forcing it to return to Abuja, shortly after departure.
The Nigerian Safety Investigation Board (NSIB) made the disclosure in a statement, adding that it has launched investigation into what it described as a serious accident.
Director, Public Affairs and Family Assistance, NSIB, Bimbo Olawumi Oladeji stated that preliminary investigations revealed the aircraft experienced an engine number two indication issue.
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It was gathered that the aircraft, with registration number 5NKAL which was operating a flight from the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja (DNAA), to Kotoka International Airport, Accra (DGAA).
She explained that four persons were onboard when the incident occurred. The crew immediately requested for a diversion back to Abuja due to the engine indication.
Oladeji added that the crew managed to safely land the aircraft at Abuja Airport at 18:16 UTC.
There were no injuries reported, and all individuals on board are safe.
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