Malaysia Approves New Search for Missing MH370 Aircraft

A new search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been formally approved by the Malaysian government.

More than ten years after the plane disappeared, this represents a fresh attempt to unravel one of aviation’s biggest mysteries.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced the government’s commitment to providing closure for families of the 239 people aboard. The Boeing 777 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity will conduct the search under a “no-find, no-fee” agreement.

The company stands to receive $70 million only if it discovers the wreckage of the missing aircraft.

The new search will cover 15,000 square kilometers in the southern Indian Ocean. Ocean Infinity has reportedly already deployed a search vessel to the area, where January to April offers optimal search conditions.

This mission follows multiple unsuccessful attempts to locate the aircraft. A multinational search covering 120,000 square kilometers ended in 2017, and Ocean Infinity’s previous search in 2018 also yielded no results.

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett says the company has improved its technology since its last attempt.

They’ve worked with experts to analyze data and narrowed the search area to where the wreckage is most likely located.

The final approval comes three months after Malaysia initially agreed in principle to the search proposal.

The transport ministry will soon finalize the contract with Ocean Infinity to begin formal operations.

New Hope for Closure After a Decade of Mystery

Investigators have searched for the jet several times, but they have only discovered debris that they suspect washed up on Indian Ocean islands and along Africa’s east coast. Numerous questions remain unresolved as the primary wreckage has not been found.

Aviation expert Byron Bailey has made a bold prediction about the new search effort. “They’re going to succeed, they will find it,” he told Sky News, citing Ocean Infinity’s advanced autonomous underwater vehicles capable of reaching depths of 4,000 meters.

Bailey claims the original search was based on incorrect assumptions about what happened to the aircraft. The new search area is just outside the previously examined region, where aerospace engineers believe the plane may have been deliberately ditched.

Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path shortly after takeoff. Military radars detected it turning back across Malaysia before heading toward the southern Indian Ocean, where it’s believed to have crashed after running out of fuel.

The disappearance sparked numerous conspiracy theories. A 2018 investigation suggested the plane’s controls were deliberately manipulated to take it off course but drew no definitive conclusions about the cause.

Families of passengers have expressed frustration over communication from Malaysian authorities.

Some Chinese relatives recently gathered outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, chanting, “Give us back our loved ones!”

For the grieving families, this search represents perhaps the last significant attempt to find answers.

If successful, it might finally offer the answers they’ve been looking for in one of the most persistent puzzles in contemporary aviation for more than ten years.