Malaysia’s transport ministry said the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will resume Dec. 30, more than a decade after the Beijing-bound Boeing 777 vanished in one of aviation’s most enduring mysteries.
The renewed operation, announced in a ministry statement on Friday, will be carried out “in targeted area assessed to have the highest probability of locating the aircraft,” but officials did not disclose a precise search location.
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MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard. Multiple international search efforts since then have failed to locate the main wreckage; debris believed or confirmed to be from the aircraft later washed up on islands and along the east coast of Africa.
The new search will be conducted under terms agreed between the Malaysian government and U.S.-based seabed-search company Ocean Infinity. Malaysia has promised to pay Ocean Infinity $70 million — about €60 million — if the operation recovers substantive wreckage from a seabed area in the southern Indian Ocean covering about 15,000 square kilometers.
Ocean Infinity led autonomous underwater vehicle searches for MH370 through 2018 but did not find the aircraft. The company’s return follows pressure from families of the victims and renewed interest from investigators seeking to resolve why the jet diverted from its planned route.
A 2018 Malaysian investigation, compiled in a 495-page report, concluded that the flight controls were likely deliberately manipulated to divert the aircraft, but it stopped short of identifying who was responsible. Investigators said a definitive conclusion hinged on recovering wreckage from the seabed.
Authorities have said they found no evidence in the backgrounds, finances, training records or mental health histories of the captain or co-pilot to suggest suspicious activity.
The decision to restart a seabed search comes amid longstanding calls from relatives for answers and compensation. Families of those aboard have pursued legal claims and damages against Malaysia Airlines as well as manufacturers and insurers, including Boeing, engine maker Rolls-Royce and the Allianz insurance group.
More than 150 of the passengers were Chinese nationals; others included citizens of Malaysia, France, Australia, Indonesia, India, the United States, Ukraine and Canada. The disappearance reverberated globally, prompting one of the aviation industry’s most costly and complex multinational inquiries.
Details about the precise search grid and the technology to be used were not released in the ministry statement. Ocean Infinity’s 2018 search deployed autonomous underwater vehicles and towed sonar systems; any renewed operation is expected to use advanced subsea sensing equipment tailored to deep-ocean wreckage detection.
Relatives and advocacy groups welcomed the announcement but cautioned that past searches had covered vast areas without success. For many families, the restart offers renewed hope for closure and for answers about what happened on the night a 777 vanished from radar and into a decade-long mystery.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
