Kuala Lumpur: A fresh search effort has been initiated to locate Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, more than ten years after the aircraft vanished in one of aviation’s most perplexing mysteries.
On Tuesday, Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, confirmed that the maritime exploration company Ocean Infinity has resumed the search for the missing plane. While the contract details between the Malaysian government and the firm are still to be finalized, Loke welcomed the company's proactive approach in deploying its ships to begin the mission.
The timeline for the search’s duration has yet to be determined, and Loke did not specify exactly when the operation commenced. However, the Malaysian government had already announced in December its decision to relaunch efforts to find the aircraft, which disappeared in March 2014.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers, disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, during its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite conducting the most extensive search in aviation history, the plane’s whereabouts remain unknown. The passengers included a majority of Chinese nationals, alongside travelers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, India, the United States, the Netherlands, and France.
Grace Nathan, a Malaysian woman who lost her mother on the flight, expressed relief and gratitude for the renewed search effort. "We’re very relieved and pleased that the search is resuming once again after such a long hiatus," she stated.
The new search is being conducted on a “no find, no fee” basis — the same arrangement as Ocean Infinity’s previous attempt in 2018. Under this agreement, Malaysia will only compensate the firm if the aircraft is located. The government has agreed to pay $70 million if the search is successful, and the contract is set for an 18-month period.
Ocean Infinity, based in both the United Kingdom and the United States, previously conducted an unsuccessful search in 2018 following a large-scale operation led by Australia, which covered 120,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean over three years. That search was suspended in early 2017 after only a few pieces of debris were found.
The new search will focus on a 15,000-square-kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean, where Ocean Infinity believes there is a stronger chance of finding the missing aircraft. Loke stated that the company combined data from various sources and presented a compelling case for why the revised search area is more credible.
The mysterious disappearance of MH370 has sparked numerous theories over the years, including speculation about the actions of the aircraft’s pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah. An official investigation report released in 2018 suggested that the plane’s course was manually altered and highlighted failures in air traffic control procedures.
As the search resumes, hopes are once again high that answers may finally be found in one of the aviation world’s most enduring mysteries.
