Malaysia to relaunch search for missing MH370 aircraft

Malaysia is set to relaunch efforts to locate the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, more than a decade after its disappearance in one of aviation’s most enduring mysteries, Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced on Friday, Anadolu reports.

The proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean was submitted by exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which did the last search in 2018, according to local news outlet CNA.

“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families,” Loke told a press conference, stressing the shared responsibility to provide answers to the next of kin.

The firm will receive $70 million if it locates substantive wreckage, he added.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Despite extensive searches covering over 119,140 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of ocean, only 18 fragments of the plane have been recovered, washed ashore in various locations.

Earlier, in March 2024, the Malaysian government said it is open to resuming the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370  citing a potential collaboration with a U.S. ocean exploration company.