More than eleven years after the mysterious disappearance of MH370, the Malaysian government has confirmed that a full-scale deep-sea search for the plane will officially resume. This new operation, set to begin on 30 December 2025, injects a fresh wave of hope into one of aviation’s most perplexing enigmas.
The search will be carried out by Ocean Infinity, a marine-robotics firm based in the US, under a high-stakes “no-find, no-fee” agreement.
Under the contract, Ocean Infinity is set to receive a payment of up to USD $70 million (KSh9,054,500,000), but only if substantial wreckage from the Boeing 777 is successfully located.
The operation is highly focused and will span a total of 55 days, conducted intermittently based on weather conditions in the southern Indian Ocean.
The target area is a newly defined 15,000-square-kilometre area.This zone has been assessed by experts as having the “highest probability” of containing the aircraft’s final resting place.
Ocean Infinity is expected to utilise its advanced marine robotics and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), technology they say has significantly improved since their last mission.
The original flight, a Boeing 777, vanished on 8 March 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people (227 passengers and 12 crew) aboard. The plane disappeared from radar screens shortly after takeoff, triggering one of the most extensive and costly search operations in history.
Previous attempts to locate the plane’s main fuselage have proven fruitless:
2014-2017, an Australia-led multinational underwater operation covered approximately 120,000 square kilometres and ended with no definitive discovery.
In 2018, a private search by Ocean Infinity under a similar deal also failed to locate the wreckage.
Over the years, only scattered debris pieces believed to be from MH370 have washed ashore on the coasts of African and Indian Ocean nations, including Réunion Island, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
The renewed search, more than a decade on, is a direct response to the persistent demand for answers from the families of the victims.
In launching the new operation, Malaysian authorities have reiterated their unwavering commitment:
“The latest development underscores the Government of Malaysia’s commitment in providing closure to the families affected by this tragedy.”
For many families, who have been living with painful uncertainty for more than a decade, the renewed operation brings a fragile, but powerful, hope that definitive answers may finally be found.
