SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – SEPTEMBER 5: Malaysia Airlines aircraft at Sydney Airport on September 5, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.
James Goley Getty Images News | Getty Images
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is set to resume later this month, more than a decade after the plane, one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries, disappeared.
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the deep-sea search for the missing plane wreckage will resume on December 30, with US-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity conducting the search intermittently for 55 days.
“The search will be carried out in the target area deemed most likely to find the aircraft,” the ministry said, without specifying the location of the search area.
Flight MH370 disappeared from air traffic radar on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 12 crew members and 227 passengers on board, prompting multiple search efforts to no avail.
In March, the Malaysian government approved a new search for the missing plane’s debris, commissioning Ocean Infinity on a “no-find, no-cost” contract that would earn it $70 million only if the wreckage is found. However, the search was called off in April due to bad weather.
Malaysia also commissioned Ocean Infinity to search the southern Indian Ocean in 2018, but no substantial debris was found.
Top Shot – A woman writes a message in Subang Jaya on March 3, 2024, at an event held by relatives of passengers and supporters to commemorate 10 years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Arif Cartono | AFP | Getty Images
In January 2017, Malaysia, China and Australia ended a fruitless two-year underwater search. In a 440-page investigation report that year, Australian authorities said they had identified “specific areas in the Indian Ocean” where the plane likely ended its flight.
The report added that in 2015 and 2016, some debris believed to be from the aircraft washed ashore on the East African coast and islands in the Indian Ocean.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in 2014 that the jetliner had deliberately disabled its communication and tracking systems and had been flying off course for more than six hours after disappearing from radar.
The flight had over 150 Chinese passengers, over 50 Malaysians, and nationals from France, Australia, Indonesia, India, the United States, Ukraine, Canada and other countries on board.
