Private U.S. Firm to Resume Deep-Sea Search for Missing Malaysia Airlines Aircraft After More Than a Decade

Malaysian authorities confirmed Wednesday that the deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will resume later this month, marking more than ten years since the aircraft vanished without a trace. The renewed effort will be undertaken by Ocean Infinity, a Texas-based marine robotics company that previously searched for the missing jet in 2018.

Officials say the company signed a new “no-find, no-fee” agreement with Malaysia’s government in March, meaning Ocean Infinity will only be compensated—up to $70 million—if the wreckage is discovered.

It remains unclear whether the firm has obtained new evidence pointing to the Boeing 777’s location. However, Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett has stated that the company has significantly upgraded its technology since the 2018 mission. He said Ocean Infinity has been collaborating with multiple experts to reanalyze all available data and has narrowed the search to what it believes is the most probable site.

Earlier this year, Ocean Infinity began scanning a new 5,800-square-mile zone in the southern Indian Ocean after receiving official approval from Malaysia. That search, however, was temporarily halted in April due to severe weather conditions.

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, shortly after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them Chinese nationals. Satellite data later revealed the aircraft veered off its planned route and is presumed to have flown south into a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean before crashing.

Despite an extensive multinational investigation and one of the most expensive ocean searches in history, the plane’s precise location has never been found. Only a handful of debris fragments—confirmed to be from MH370—have washed ashore on the East African coast and on islands in the Indian Ocean. No bodies or major wreckage have ever been recovered.

The resumption of the search brings a renewed sense of hope to families of the victims, who have spent more than a decade awaiting answers to one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.