A new search operation for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished in March 2014 in one of aviation’s most baffling mysteries, has been launched over a decade later, The Guardian reported.   

According to Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke, maritime exploration company Ocean Infinity has resumed efforts to locate the missing aircraft. While the contract terms between Malaysia and the firm were still being finalized, Loke praised Ocean Infinity’s initiative in deploying its ships for the renewed search. 

As of February 23, marine tracking website Marinetraffic.com showed the Ocean Infinity vessel in the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysia agreed to resume the search for MH370 in December 2024, with Ocean Infinity operating on a "no-find-no-fee" basis. The government will sign an 18-month contract, offering $70 million if the wreckage is found within a 15,000 sq km area.  

The flight, a Boeing 777-200, departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8, 2014, but vanished from military radar over the Strait of Malacca. MH370 was en route to Beijing with 12 crew members and 227 passengers. The aircraft was never recovered, and the cause of its disappearance remains a mystery.

"We’re very relieved and pleased that the search is resuming once again after such a long hiatus," Malaysian Grace Nathan, 36, whose mother was on board the plane, told AFP. Meanwhile, Jaquita Gonzales, 62, wife of MH370 flight supervisor Patrick Gomes, said she hoped the search would bring her family the closure they need. 

A decade of unanswered questions

Families of the 239 people on board continue to seek answers. In 2016, some searched Madagascar’s beaches for debris, after fragments were found off Tanzania and Mozambique.

In January 2017, after nearly three years of searching 120,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean, Australian authorities ended their underwater search for MH370. Later that year, on October 3, investigators released their final report, calling the failure to provide closure to victims’ families a "great tragedy" and "almost inconceivable" in the modern era.  

Key questions remain, including why the plane made a deliberate turn toward the Indian Ocean and why two critical communication and tracking systems went silent. Theories about its disappearance range from a rogue pilot to sabotage, or even claims that the plane was shot down or secretly landed due to sensitive cargo or a high-profile passenger.  

Data from a flight simulator owned by pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah revealed a course plotted toward the southern Indian Ocean. In 2018, Ocean Infinity, a company based in Britain and the US, conducted another search but was unsuccessful.