Malaysia has confirmed that a fresh search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will begin on December 30, 2025, more than eleven years after the aircraft disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Marine robotics company Ocean Infinity will lead the mission under a “no-find, no-fee” agreement, focusing on a 15,000km² zone in the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, told reporters that the offer was accepted because new analysis had narrowed the likely crash location, while stressing that taxpayers would not pay if the mission is unsuccessful.
Ocean Infinity says its updated fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles can scan the seabed faster and in finer detail than systems used during the original multi-year search.
MH370: The flight that disappeared without warning nor trace
MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur shortly after midnight on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew. About 40 minutes into the flight, communications systems stopped transmitting and civilian air traffic controllers lost contact as the aircraft crossed into Vietnamese-controlled airspace.
Military radar later showed the Boeing 777 turning back across the Malay Peninsula before heading northwest towards the Andaman Sea. The jet then disappeared from radar entirely.
The leading theories: what investigators believe happened to flight MH370
Deliberate course change
Malaysia’s official 2018 investigation reported that the aircraft’s diversion involved “manual inputs”, though no individual was identified as responsible. The report stated there was no evidence implicating the pilots and no confirmed motive.
Unlawful interference
Hijacking or external interference was not ruled out, but no credible claim of responsibility has ever emerged, and no forensic evidence supports a third-party takeover.
Technical failure and crew incapacitation
Some experts argue a catastrophic systems failure or decompression could have incapacitated everyone on board, leaving the aircraft to fly on autopilot until fuel exhaustion. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has noted that the final satellite signals are consistent with the aircraft entering an uncontrolled, high-rate descent.
Despite years of analysis, the cause remains unknown. All official investigations conclude that only recovery of the wreckage and flight recorders can provide definitive answers.
Debris found from MH370
In July 2015, a wing component washed ashore on Réunion Island. French authorities later confirmed it belonged to MH370 – the first physical evidence that the aircraft had crashed into the ocean.
Further debris was later found in Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and Mauritius, with several pieces confirmed as part of the missing Boeing 777.
Oceanographers at Australia’s CSIRO demonstrated that this pattern of debris dispersal matched an impact along the “seventh arc”, the path indicated by satellite data. Recent scientific studies, including barnacle shell isotope analysis, have attempted to identify water temperatures the debris travelled through, potentially narrowing the latitude of the crash site.
Why the search for MH370 is resuming after more than a decade
Since 2017, updated ocean simulations using larger datasets and advanced ensemble modelling techniques have produced more consistent overlap zones along the seventh arc.
Investigators have re-examined the Inmarsat data using upgraded aircraft-performance models and statistical methods, tightening the expected fuel-exhaustion point.
One of the most debated innovations is WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) research. WSPR is a global network of amateur radio transmissions that logs weak signals in real time. Some researchers argue that disruptions in WSPR signals correspond to an aircraft – potentially MH370 – crossing radio paths at key moments on the night it disappeared.
Families of the 239 people on board have campaigned for years for Malaysia to approve a new search. Advocacy groups such as Voice370 have repeatedly called for transparency and re-engagement with Ocean Infinity.
How MH370 changed global aviation safety
Since 2014, ICAO has accelerated global changes including:
- A requirement for airlines to track most large aircraft at least every 15 minutes on long-haul and oceanic segments
- Widespread adoption of satellite-based tracking technologies such as space-based ADS-B to cover remote oceanic routes
- New Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) provisions that call for automatic distress-tracking when an aircraft appears to be in trouble, though implementation is still being phased in.
These changes mean that long-distance flights – particularly those linking Europe and Asia – are now monitored far more closely than when MH370 vanished.
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