KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia will restart the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at the end of the month, reviving efforts to locate the jet more than a decade after it vanished during a flight to Beijing, the country's transport ministry said on December 3.
The new operation is scheduled to begin on December 30 and will be carried out by U.S.-based exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which plans a 55-day seabed search conducted intermittently. Poor weather halted the company's previous attempt in April, only weeks after it began.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, disappeared in 2014 while travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite multiple multinational searches, the aircraft has never been found, making the case one of modern aviation's most enduring mysteries.
Malaysia said the renewed mission would focus on an area assessed to have "the highest probability of locating the aircraft". No precise coordinates of the search zone were disclosed.
Debris confirmed, and in some cases believed to be from MH370, has washed ashore on islands in the Indian Ocean and along Africa's coastline in the years since the disappearance. Early investigations did not rule out the possibility of deliberate course manipulation, though a definitive explanation has never been established.
The transport ministry said the new operation will follow the terms agreed between the government and Ocean Infinity for restarting the wreckage hunt. Malaysia will pay the firm US$70 million if substantive wreckage is found within a 15,000-square-kilometer (5,790-square-mile) section of the southern Indian Ocean.
Ocean Infinity previously searched for the aircraft until 2018, also without success.
A 495-page investigation report released in 2018 said the jet's controls were likely manipulated to steer it off course, but reached no conclusion about who was responsible. The report found nothing suspicious in the backgrounds or mental health of the captain or co-pilot.
More than 150 of the passengers were Chinese nationals. Others included Malaysians and citizens of France, Australia, Indonesia, India, the United States, Ukraine, Canada, and several other countries. Families of those on board have ongoing legal claims against Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, engine maker Rolls-Royce, and insurers, including Allianz.
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