Relatives of those missing on board flight MH370 are hoping to raise $5m (£3m) to reward any “whistleblower” who can offer information which leads to the discovery of the lost plane.
Many of the families believe there has been a cover up and they are hoping the money will tempt someone to come forward, for example an insider from the world of commercial aviation or the military.
The money will be collected from donations through the fundraising website Indiegogo. Part of it will also go to funding private investigators to follow up on any leads.
The Malaysia Airlines jet lost contact on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard – about two-thirds of them Chinese.
The Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but an extensive search has turned up no sign of wreckage so far, leaving families increasingly frustrated.
Sarah Bajc’s partner, American Philip Wood, was on the plane.
She told Sky News: “I am certain there’s been a cover-up. I’m not sure who is doing it or why they’re doing it, whether it was an intentional act that’s being obscured or whether there was a genuine bad thing that happened and people are trying not to let that come to life.
“But we do honestly believe that somewhere there is a person who knows something that will allow us to find the plane and find our loved ones.”
Ethan Hunt, leader of the project, said: “This mystery is unprecedented in the history of aviation, and we need to work as a collective community with one goal of finding the truth, the plane and the passengers.
“Utilising the immense potential of the crowd we believe we can achieve our primary goal of recovering the flight where others methods have failed in the past.
“We are convinced that somewhere, someone knows something, and we hope this reward will entice him or her to come forward.”
The search for the aircraft remains focused on the Indian Ocean but is to be expanded after “pings”, or signals, thought to be from the plane’s black box flight recorders did not lead to any wreckage being found.
