KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A renewed deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has not located the missing aircraft, which vanished on March 8, 2014, with 239 people aboard. Despite extensive efforts by the marine robotics company Ocean Infinity between March 2025 and January 2026, Malaysian authorities stated that the search yielded no confirmed findings of wreckage.
The Air Accident Investigation Bureau released a statement outlining the search conducted under a “no-find, no-fee” contract. Last year, Malaysia authorized Ocean Infinity to survey a new area of 15,000 square kilometers (approximately 5,800 square miles) in the southern Indian Ocean, where the aircraft is believed to have crashed. The company will receive $70 million only if it discovers the wreckage.
Search operations spanned 28 days and were divided into two phases: March 25–28, 2025, and December 31, 2025, to January 23, 2026. The bureau reported that approximately 7,571 square kilometers (around 2,923 square miles) of seabed were surveyed, but weather conditions intermittently disrupted operations.
In its statement, the bureau confirmed, “The search activities undertaken have not yielded any findings that confirm the location of the aircraft wreckage.” The timeline for resuming the search remains unclear, as the search vessel has been reassigned to other projects due to worsening sea conditions and the approaching winter months.
Flight MH370 disappeared shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, en route to Beijing. Despite a costly multinational search effort, which concluded without success, debris from the aircraft has washed ashore on the east coast of Africa and various Indian Ocean islands. A previous private search by Ocean Infinity in 2018 also failed to yield results.
The family advocacy group, Voice 370, representing relatives of some passengers, is urging the Malaysian government to extend Ocean Infinity’s contract. They are advocating for similar agreements with other deep-sea exploration companies, emphasizing that the government incurs no costs unless the wreckage is found.
The group stated, “Any request by Ocean Infinity to extend the search contract should therefore be granted without hesitation.” They expressed their determination to continue seeking answers, stating, “We will never give up!”
As the search for MH370 continues to be a poignant issue for the families of those on board, the call for renewed efforts highlights the ongoing quest for closure regarding one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
