Search for Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Resumes After More Than a Decade
KUALA LUMPUR — Nearly 12 years after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished, authorities have restarted the deep-sea search for the missing Boeing 777 over the southern Indian Ocean, giving fresh hope to families of the 239 passengers and crew who disappeared without a trace. The renewed search effort began on Dec. 30, 2025, with marine exploration firm Ocean Infinity deploying advanced underwater technology to scour a targeted area believed to be the most promising zone for locating wreckage.
Flight MH370 disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, shortly after departing from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, turning into one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. Despite years of multinational search operations and the discovery of a handful of debris pieces washed ashore on Indian Ocean islands and African coasts, investigators have never found the aircraft’s main wreckage or flight recorders.
The latest search mission — scheduled to last up to 55 days — is backed by a “no find, no fee” contract between the Malaysian government and Ocean Infinity, under which the company will only be paid if significant wreckage or the missing black boxes are located. This arrangement reflects ongoing frustration over the high cost and uncertain outcomes of long-term search efforts.
Ocean Infinity’s strategy focuses on a roughly 15,000-square-kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean, located about 1,200 miles southwest of Australia. The company plans to use underwater autonomous vehicles and cutting-edge sonar mapping technology to comb the ocean floor at great depths, hoping to zero in on parts of the plane long suspected to lie buried under sediment and rugged seabed features.
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said the decision to resume operations late in the year is partly due to more favourable seasonal weather conditions that improve the safety and effectiveness of deep-sea exploration. “We remain committed to providing answers and closure to the families affected by this tragedy,” the ministry said in a statement announcing the search’s official resumption.
Relatives of passengers, who have campaigned for renewed efforts, expressed cautious optimism that this mission could finally solve the enduring mystery that has haunted them for more than a decade. Many families continue to hold out hope that locating the aircraft’s wreckage and flight recorders could shed light on what truly happened to MH370.
Despite the enormous challenge of pinpointing wreckage in some of the world’s deepest and most remote ocean territory, experts say new technology and refined search models may improve the chances of success compared with earlier, broader search efforts. Whether this mission will end the mystery of MH370 remains uncertain, but it marks the most concerted push yet to unlock one of aviation’s greatest enigmas.
