A fresh search for the Boeing 777, which went missing in 2014 with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board, will begin on December 30.
Efforts to solve one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries will resume later this month as the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues, the country’s transport ministry said.
The plane, a Boeing 777, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, shortly after taking off from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing, China.
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“The search will focus on targeted areas where the plane is most likely to be detected,” the transport ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the official Bernama news agency, the ministry said the renewed search effort “underscores the Malaysian government’s commitment to providing assistance to families affected by the tragedy”.
Two-thirds of the passengers on that ill-fated flight were Chinese, while others were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere.
Flight investigators said in a 495-page report into the disappearance that they did not know why the plane disappeared and ruled out the possibility that anyone other than the pilots had diverted the jet from its intended path.
Satellite data showed that the plane deviated from its flight path and headed south towards the far southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have run out of fuel and crashed.
Initially, an Australia-led search operation scoured 120,000 square km (46,300 sq mi) of ocean over three years, but found only a few pieces of possible debris on beaches in East African and Indian Ocean countries, including Mozambique, Madagascar and Reunion Island.
The most recent search for MH370 ended in early April due to bad weather after several weeks of fruitless underwater reconnaissance by marine exploration company Ocean Infinity.
Ocean Infinity, which also led the unsuccessful search in 2018, will resume the search for the missing plane on December 30, Bernama reported.
Malaysia’s government in March agreed to a “no-find, no-fee” contract with United Kingdom and United States-based Ocean Infinity to resume marine search operations at a new 15,000 square km (5,800 square mile) site in the Indian Ocean, the Associated Press news agency reported.
The $70 million fee will be paid to Ocean Infinity only if a sufficient amount of plane debris is discovered.
Relatives of the passengers and crew have lobbied for years for the hunt to continue and have sought compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and Allianz insurance group, among others.
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