Nearly 12 years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 passengers on board, the search for answers to one of aviation’s most haunting mysteries resumed in the remote southern Indian Ocean on Tuesday.
Armed with cutting-edge deep-sea robots and smarter data, U.S. investigators are scouring the ocean floor for clues that have eluded governments, experts and grieving families for more than a decade.
Just after midnight on March 8, 2014, MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur on what was supposed to be an uneventful six-hour flight to Beijing.
Less than an hour later, its transponder went black and the Boeing 777 disappeared from civilian radar. Military screens later showed the plane turning sharply westward, flying back to Malaysia and then south across the vast Indian Ocean.
What followed was the most ambitious and expensive search operation in aviation history, with a multinational team using ships, aircraft and sonar to scour more than 46,000 square miles (120,000 square kilometers) of the seafloor off Western Australia.
They found nothing.
The search was called off in 2017, leaving families heartbroken and the mystery spawning speculation ranging from hijacking to deliberate pilot action.
Now, the Malaysian government has given the green light to a new attempt led by Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity under a “no find, no fee” contract, according to a statement from Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport.
“The latest developments underscore the Malaysian government’s commitment to providing relief to families affected by this tragedy,” the statement said.
According to reports, the company can only earn $70 million in revenue if the location of the sunken ship is found.
This new phase, expected to last up to 55 days, aims to narrow the search area to about 5,800 square miles, far smaller than previous efforts, and use updated satellite data, drift models and expert analysis to pinpoint the location.
-Keep your hunting alive-
Ocean Infinity is unveiling autonomous underwater vehicles that can dive to nearly 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) and stay underwater for days at a time.
The drones use high-resolution side-scan sonar, ultrasonic imaging and magnetometers to create 3D maps of the seafloor, detect buried debris and pick up traces of metal. If a promising situation arises, the remotely controlled vehicle can be lowered for a closer inspection.
Ocean Infinity, which also has a control center in the UK, led an unsuccessful search in 2018 before agreeing to launch a new search this year. AFP contacted the company for comment but there was no immediate reply.
Only fragments of MH370 have been found. Since 2015, fewer than 30 pieces of debris thought to be from the plane – bits of wings, landing gear and fuselage – have washed up on coasts thousands of kilometers apart, from Reunion Island to Mozambique.
No bodies have been found.
A Malaysian official investigation concluded in 2018 that the plane may have deliberately changed its course, but did not identify responsibility.
Relatives from China, Australia, Europe and elsewhere have fought for years to keep the hunt alive, arguing the closure is important not just for the dead but for global aviation safety.
The governments in Beijing and Canberra welcomed Malaysia’s decision and pledged to support any practical efforts to solve the case.
Chinese citizen Jiang Hui lost his 72-year-old mother Jiang Cuiyun in the disaster. Earlier this month, he told AFP in an interview at his home in Beijing that despite his frustration with the authorities, he remained determined to find answers.
“Finding the plane, finding the people I loved, finding the truth – I believed this was what I had to do in my life,” he said.
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