The search for MH-370 has been extended by one year to ensure next of kin have some closure. (Image source: Reuters)
Malaysia has extended its agreement with deep-sea exploration company Ocean Infinity by one year to search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Malaysian Ministry of Transport said on Monday.The Boeing 777 plane was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members when it disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, becoming one of the biggest aviation mysteries in the world. Multiple searches for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean proved fruitless.Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the extension is for 12 months from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, allowing Ocean Infinity to complete research on the remaining 7,428.54 square kilometres.
The company will not receive $70 million unless it finds the wreckage.“This decision is evidence of the government’s ongoing and steadfast commitment to providing closure for relatives of passengers on board flight MH370,” Luke said in a statement.New contract commitments mean that the research will pause between November 2026 and April 2027.Ocean Infinity had previously conducted searches for the plane until 2018.
Last year, it signed a new agreement with Malaysia to resume hunting in an area of 15,000 square kilometers, with the hunt to begin in March of this year, but it was suspended after a few weeks due to bad weather conditions.The latest extension takes into account Ocean Infinity’s new commercial contract obligations, which will require core research assets to be temporarily redeployed to another location between November 2026 and April 2027, Locke added.The new search is being conducted under the same terms and conditions agreed between Malaysia and Ocean Infinity in 2024, in a target area assessed as having a higher probability of locating the aircraft. The exact location has not been determined.
MH370 remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries
More than 30 pieces of suspected plane wreckage have been collected along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean, but only three fragments of plane wings have been confirmed as belonging to MH370.
A 495-page report published in July 2018 said the Boeing 777’s controls were likely intentionally manipulated to throw it off course, but investigators were unable to determine who was responsible.Analysis of satellite data showed that the plane likely crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, off the coast of Western Australia. However, two major searches failed to find any major wreckage. The first search, which cost about A$200 million, was canceled in January 2017.The inability to locate the crash site has fueled numerous conspiracy theories, ranging from mechanical fault to more bizarre explanations such as alien abduction. In recent years, some aviation experts have said the most likely explanation is that an experienced pilot intentionally sent the plane off course.The Malaysian government announced in December 2024 that it would resume research following a new proposal from Ocean Infinity. The search began in March of this year, but stopped after a few weeks due to bad weather.
