12 years on, renewed hunt for lacking Malaysia Airways flight comes up empty : NPR

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Vincent Thian/AP KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Twelve years after Malaysia Airways Flight MH370 vanished with 239 folks aboard, a renewed deep-sea search within the southern Indian Ocean has thus far did not find the lacking plane, Malaysian authorities stated Sunday, as households pressed for the hassle to proceed.

The Air Accident Investigation Bureau stated in an announcement {that a} seabed search performed by marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity between March 2025 and January 2026 surveyed 1000's of sq. kilometers of ocean ground however has not produced any confirmed findings of the plane wreckage.

Malaysia gave the nod to the Texas-based firm final yr to resume the seek for Flight 370 underneath a "no-find, no-fee" contract at a brand new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) website within the southern Indian Ocean the place it was believed to have crashed. Ocean Infinity will probably be paid $70 million provided that wreckage is found.

The search was carried out for 28 days in two phases — March 25–28 final yr and Dec 31, 2025, to Jan 23 this yr, masking about 7,571 sq. kilometers (2,923 sq. miles) of seabed, the bureau stated. Climate periodically disrupted operations, it stated.

"The search actions undertaken haven't yielded any findings that affirm the placement of the plane wreckage," it stated in an announcement. It did not give particulars on when the search will resume.

The Boeing 777 airplane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 folks, largely Chinese language nationals, on a flight from Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite tv for pc knowledge confirmed the airplane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, the place it's believed to have crashed.

An costly multinational search failed to show up any clues to its location, though particles washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A non-public search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity additionally discovered nothing.

Voice 370, representing the households of a few of these aboard the lacking airplane, urged the federal government to increase Ocean Infinity's contract and to think about related preparations with different deep-sea exploration firms.

Though Ocean Infinity's contract runs till June, the group stated the corporate's vessel has been redeployed for different work and is unlikely to return quickly to finish the remaining search areas because of the approaching winter months and deteriorating sea circumstances.

"The federal government pays nothing except the plane is discovered. Any request by Ocean Infinity to increase the search contract ought to subsequently be granted with out hesitation," it stated in an announcement. "If the current search is unsuccessful, we might additionally urge Malaysia to kindly think about extending related no discover, no price alternatives to different succesful deep sea exploration firms."