The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is set to restart more than ten years after the plane disappeared in one of aviation’s biggest mysteries. On March 8, 2014, the Boeing 777 vanished while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 people.
The plane is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, off the coast of western Australia. Despite extensive searches covering vast areas, no significant evidence of the aircraft has been found. Two major search efforts have failed to yield any substantial findings, leaving families and investigators with many unanswered questions.
In December, Malaysia announced it would resume the search. The exploration company Ocean Infinity has now mobilized its ships to the search area. However, Malaysia has yet to finalize the contract for the seabed search, leading to uncertainty about when the search will officially begin. Transport Minister Anthony Loke expressed appreciation for Ocean Infinity’s proactive approach but noted that the search would not continue indefinitely.
Contact with Flight MH370 was lost about 40 minutes after takeoff. The captain’s last words were a simple "Good night, Malaysian three seven zero" as the plane entered Vietnamese airspace. Shortly after, the plane’s transponder was turned off, making it challenging to track. Military radar later showed that the aircraft deviated from its intended route, turning back over Malaysia and heading south before all communication ceased.
The initial search, which involved Malaysia, Australia, and China, covered 120,000 square kilometers and cost around $143 million. Unfortunately, no major pieces of the aircraft or the critical black boxes were discovered. Some debris suspected to be from the plane has washed up along the African coast and on islands in the Indian Ocean, with only three wing fragments confirmed to be from MH370.
A 2018 report suggested that the plane’s controls were likely manipulated to divert it from its course, but investigators did not reach a definitive conclusion about the circumstances surrounding its disappearance. They noted that there was no evidence of suspicious behavior from the captain or co-pilot.
As the new search effort begins, hope remains that it may finally bring closure to the families of those who were aboard that fateful flight.