Debris from MH370 is helping investigators scale down the most likely final resting place of the missing plane. Picture: ATSB

Professor Luke Connelly from the University of Queensland said a reward “upwards of $100 million” would be needed to act as an incentive for large companies to invest in a search.

He wrote in Aviation Week that one option for funding such a large sum would be getting the reward underwritten by an insurance company — to be paid out in the event the aircraft or black boxes were found.

“Prize insurance is not as uncommon as may be thought,” he said.

“It’s routinely used for ‘hole-in-one’ and other unlikely sports prizes.”

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ATSB diagram showing the area already searched in the Southern Indian Ocean and the zone where MH370 is now considered most likely to be. Picture: ATSBSource:Supplied

The search for MH370 ended in January after contractor Fugro finished scouring a 120,000 square kilometre area of the Southern Indian Ocean, a process that took more than two years.

The zone was considered the most likely final resting place of the Malaysia Airlines’ flight, based on a series of satellite ‘handshakes’ with the Boeing 777.

But since then further analysis and drift modelling has identified another area to the north of the original search zone, as the most probable site of the missing plane.

Despite reports by the CSIRO and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau pointing to the new site, the governments of Malaysia, Australia and China have refused to fund another search.

Prof Connelly said another option was to provide a “menu of rewards” depending on the value of the discovery from MH370.

“If you had a menu of bounties people who found lower value parts of the aircraft would have more incentive to hand them over, and it would create more competition among people searching for the fuselage and the blackboxes,” he said.

MH370 search ship Fugro Equator was unable to find the missing plane in the Southern Indian Ocean. Picture: News Corp AustraliaSource:News Corp Australia

Another advantage of a reward for the discovery of MH370, was inspiring a higher level of innovation and investment in search technologies.

“Some companies may be enticed to invest in equipment that enables them to conduct incidental searches, perhaps in joint ventures with specialist firms that supply underwater scanning equipment,” Prof Connelly said.

“For instance, new seagoing vessels may be fitted with more advanced underwater scanning and detection equipment than is generally required for navigation.

“Third-party suppliers of such technologies — which are highly specialised and have a limited market — may, for instance, engage with ship builders to extend their market … perhaps with profit-sharing arrangements.”

The disappearance of the Boeing 777 remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries with no official explanation provided for its sudden change of course and apparent “ghost flight” towards the Southern Indian Ocean.

There were 239 people on board the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, including six Australians.

Federal Transport Minister Darren Chester has indicated the search would only be resumed if credible new evidence about the plane’s whereabouts becomes available.