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One of aviation's greatest mysteries/ The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is expected to resume tomorrow

2025-12-29 15:19:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

One of aviation's greatest mysteries/ The search for Malaysia Airlines

The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is set to resume on December 30, more than a decade after the plane disappeared with 239 people on board. The incident is considered one of aviation's greatest mysteries. A search by Ocean Infinity, a marine robotics company based in the UK and US, began earlier this year but was called off in April due to bad weather.

The Malaysian transport ministry announced this month that the seabed search will be carried out intermittently over 55 days starting on December 30. Ocean Infinity has agreed a contract with Malaysia under which the company will search a new 5,800 square mile (15,000 square km) area of ??the ocean and will be paid $70 million (£52 million) only if the wreckage is discovered. The company declined to comment on the latest search.

Flight MH370 went off course and disappeared from air traffic radar during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It was carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers, most of whom were Chinese nationals. Thirty-eight Malaysian passengers were also on board, along with seven Australian citizens and residents. The other nationals were from Indonesia, India, France, the United States, Iran, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia and Taiwan.

The plane's disappearance led to one of the world's largest underwater search operations. Australia led the multinational effort, along with Malaysia and China, that covered more than 46,330 square miles of seabed in a remote area of ??the southern Indian Ocean.

The search ended in January 2017. In a report later that year, Australian investigators said the failure to bring a solution to the victims' families was a great tragedy and almost inconceivable in the modern era. In 2018, Ocean Infinity conducted a three-month search, although this too was inconclusive.

Debris, some of which has been confirmed to be from the plane, has been seen over the years along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean. Details on the location of Ocean Infinity's latest search have not been given and Malaysia's transport ministry has said only that it will be in a target area deemed to have the highest probability of finding the plane.

In 2018, an official Malaysian investigation concluded that the plane had been manually returned to the air, rather than under autopilot control, and that unlawful interference by a third party could not be ruled out. However, the report rejected theories that had suggested the pilot and first officer had crashed flight MH370 on a suicide mission and ruled out mechanical failure as the cause. Relatives of those on board have long said answers are needed to prevent another tragedy. /CNA