Malaysia Launches Long-Awaited Search for Missing Flight MH370 After 11 Years
Deep-sea hunt for vanished Flight 370 resumes December 30.
Malaysia has announced that the long-suspended underwater search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will resume on December 30, more than eleven years after the Boeing 777 vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board. The aircraft disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, shortly after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, in one of aviation’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
Satellite data subsequently revealed that the aircraft deviated dramatically from its planned route, turning south over the Indian Ocean before running out of fuel and presumably crashing in a remote stretch of seabed. Despite one of the most expensive search operations in history, involving multiple nations and covering vast expanses of ocean, no conclusive wreckage site has ever been located.
The new operation will be conducted by U.S.-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity under a “no-find, no-fee” agreement approved by the Malaysian government in March. The firm will deploy autonomous underwater vehicles across a prioritised 15,000-square-kilometre area in the southern Indian Ocean for an intermittent 55-day campaign, receiving a $70 million payment only if the aircraft is located.
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The decision follows the suspension of an earlier Ocean Infinity search in April due to adverse weather conditions. Previous efforts, including a multinational operation that concluded in 2017 and Ocean Infinity’s 2018 private mission, failed to yield the main wreckage, though confirmed debris from the aircraft has washed ashore on coasts in East Africa and Indian Ocean islands.
Malaysia’s transport ministry emphasised that the renewed effort reflects the government’s unwavering commitment to delivering answers and closure to the families of the 239 victims, most of whom were Chinese nationals. As advanced technology returns to the remote search zone, the world awaits whether this latest mission will finally unravel the enduring enigma of Flight MH370.
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