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The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will resume this month, the Malaysian transport ministry has said, more than a decade after the plane disappeared in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
In a statement on Wednesday, the transport ministry confirmed the search would resume on 30 December, saying that US-based robotic company Ocean Infinity would recommence a search of the seabed over a period of 55 days, conducted intermittently.
It said the new search operations would target areas where it is believed there is the highest likelihood of finding the missing aircraft, though details of the exact locations have not been given.
Flight MH370 veered off course and vanished from air traffic radar on 8 March 2014, during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It was carrying 12 Malaysian crew and 227 passengers, most of whom were Chinese citizens. Thirty-eight Malaysian passengers were on board, along with seven Australian citizens and residents, plus citizens from Indonesia, India, France, the US, Iran, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia and Taiwan.
Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul, an Australian citizen, was onboard, welcomed news of the renewed search efforts, saying she was “incredibly grateful and relieved that the Malaysian government has committed to continuing the search”.
“We’ve never stopped wishing for answers, and knowing the search will go on brings a sense of comfort. I truly hope this next phase gives us the clarity and peace we’ve been so desperately longing for, for us and our loved ones, since March 8th 2014,” said Weeks.
In the years since the disappearance, vast swathes of the Indian Ocean have been scoured to locate the plane’s wreckage through both multinational and private efforts, without success.
Last year, Malaysia said it was willing to reopen an investigation into the disappearance if there was compelling new evidence. It agreed to a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Ocean Infinity to resume searching across a new 15,000 sq km (5,800 sq mile) site in the ocean. Under the agreement, Ocean Infinity will be paid $70m only if wreckage is discovered.
However, the most recent search activity in the southern Indian Ocean was suspended in in April this year due to poor weather conditions.
Flight MH370, a B777-200 aircraft, had departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am local time on 8 March 2014, bound for Beijing. The plane was last seen on military radar at 2.14am, heading west over the strait of Malacca. Half an hour later, the airline announced it had lost contact with the plane, which was due to land at its destination about 6.30am.
The families of those onboard have long campaigned for accountability, saying answers are needed to prevent another tragedy. Some travelled to Madagascar in 2016 to comb the beaches there for debris: pieces of the plane had been found off the Tanzanian and Mozambican coasts.
In January 2017, Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities announced the end of an underwater hunt for the wreckage after two and a half years spent by Australian teams searching 120,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean.
Later that year, Australian investigators delivered their final report on the disappearance, saying the inability to bring closure for victims’ families was a “great tragedy” and “almost inconceivable” in the modern age.
In 2018, an official investigation by Malaysia concluded the plane was manually turned around in mid-air, rather than being under the control of autopilot, and that “unlawful interference by a third party” could not be ruled out. However, it dismissed theories that had suggested the pilot and first officer brought the plane down in a suicide mission, and ruled out mechanical failure as a cause.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Malaysian transport ministry said: “The latest development underscores the government of Malaysia’s commitment in providing closure to the families affected by this tragedy.”
