The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flightwill restart with a new targeted search this month, more than 11 years after the Boeing 777 vanished without a trace.
British-American firm Ocean Infinity will spearhead the new operation, which will comb the seabed across a 15,000 square kilometre zone in the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia's transport ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the search will recommence on December 30.
MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing on March 8 2014, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.
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Malaysia's transport ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the search will recommence on December 30.
MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing on 8 March 2014, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.
Contact was lost approximately 38 minutes after take-off as the plane crossed the South China Sea.
Military radar subsequently tracked the Boeing 777, making an abrupt westward turn before reaching Vietnamese airspace, flying back over the Malay peninsula. The final detection placed it above the Andaman Sea.
A new search is being launched for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370
|GETTY
Wreckage fragments have since washed ashore along African coastlines and Indian Ocean islands, yet the flight recorder remains missing.
A multinational operation covering 74,000 square kilometres was closed in 2017, with no results to speak of.
Ocean Infinity had also previously launched a bid to find the vanished plane in May 2018, but also came up short.
However, new hope appears to be on the horizon as the British firm will deploy cutting-edge technology to aid its renewed efforts.
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The plane carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members mysteriously vanished in 2014
|GETTY
They will now utilise robotic autonomous underwater vehicles alongside unmanned surface vessels equipped with high-resolution sonar and artificial intelligence-powered seabed mapping technology.
Ocean Infinity chief executive, Oliver Plunkett, declared that his team believes they are now technologically ready for the task.
"This search is arguably the most challenging, and indeed the most pertinent one out there," Mr Plunkett said.
"We've been working with many experts, some outside of Ocean Infinity, to continue analysing the data in the hopes of narrowing the search area down to one in which success becomes potentially achievable, he told the New Straits Times.
The British firm was enlisted as part of a “no find, no fee” arrangement approved by Malaysia's cabinet in March 2025.
Ocean Infinity stands to receive £56million if the aircraft is successfully located.
This month’s search, set to last 55 days, could result in closure for the families still left in the dark in the ultimate fate of their loved ones who were aboard MH370.
More than 150 Chinese nationals were aboard the flight, and their relatives have pursued compensation claims against Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and insurers including Allianz.
Among those lost were two Australian couples travelling together: Rodney and Mary Burrows, and Catherine and Robert Lawton, all from Brisbane.
Friends described the Lawtons as devoted grandparents who loved to travel.
Two French teenagers, Hadrien Wattrelos and Zhao Yan, both students at the Lycée Français International de Pékin, were also on the passenger manifest.
Canadian couple Muktesh Mukherjee and Bai Xiaomo were returning to their Beijing home; their two young children were not travelling with them.
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