Marine robotics firm will resume deep-sea search for MH370 plane that vanished a decade ago

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — A private company will resume the deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 later this month, the Malaysian Transport Ministry said on Wednesday, raising hopes of locating the plane that disappeared without a trace more than a decade ago.

The search will be led by Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, which signed a new “no-find, no-fee” contract with the Malaysian government in March.

Ocean Infinity conducted its first seafloor search for the plane in 2018 under a similar deal and found nothing. The company resumed seafloor research at a new 15,000 square kilometer (5,800 square mile) site in the Indian Ocean after the Malaysian government gave it the green light, but the search was halted in April due to bad weather.

Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million just if the wreck is discovered.

It is unclear whether the company has new evidence of the plane’s location. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Banquet reportedly said last year that the company had improved its technology since 2018. He said the company was working with several experts to analyze the data and had narrowed the search to the most likely location.

The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar screens shortly after take-off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, most of them Chinese citizens, on a flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed that the plane deviated from its flight path and headed south into the southernmost part of the Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

An expensive search by a multinational company failed to find any evidence of its location, although the wreck washed ashore on the coast of East Africa and the islands of the Indian Ocean.

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport said in a brief statement on Wednesday that Ocean Infinity will search intermittently from December 30 for a period of 55 days in the targeted areas believed to have the greatest possibility of finding the missing plane.

She added, “The latest development confirms the Malaysian government’s commitment to providing assistance to the families affected by this tragedy.”

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said: “We… appreciate the efforts made by the Malaysian side.”