Malaysia will renew efforts to locate Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 later this month, nearly 12 years after the Boeing 777 disappeared while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement Wednesday that the new operation will concentrate on “targeted areas assessed to have the highest probability of locating the aircraft.”
There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members onboard when the aircraft vanished from radar on March 8, 2014, prompting a multinational search across vast stretches of the Indian Ocean.
Ocean Infinity, the maritime exploration company that conducted searches in 2018 and earlier this year, will lead the search. The renewed effort will begin Dec. 30, and follows an earlier mission that ended in April due to poor weather and no confirmed debris findings. Under a no-find, no-fee contract, the United Kingdom and United States-based company will survey a new 15,000-square-kilometer area of the Indian Ocean and will be compensated $70 million only if substantial wreckage from MH370 is found.
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said it remains committed to providing closure for families, many of whom have pressed for continued searches and accountability. Most passengers on Flight MH370 were from China, with others from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and additional nations. A 495-page investigative report previously noted that satellite data showed the aircraft diverting far off course before likely running out of fuel over the southern Indian Ocean. Although debris has washed ashore in several countries and reports have debris have continued over the following years, investigators have not been able to determine why the aircraft disappeared.
When they are finished maybe they can boogie over to the Nikumaroro area and look for Amelia.