KUALA LUMPUR: A fresh search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been launched more than a decade after the plane went missing in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries.

Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity has resumed the hunt for the missing plane, Malaysian Transport Minister Antho­ny Loke said on Tuesday.

Loke told reporters contract details between Malaysia and the firm were still being finalized, but welcomed “the proactiveness of Ocean Infinity to deploy their ships” to begin the search for the plane, which went missing in March 2014.

Loke said details about how long the search would last had not been negotiated yet. He also did not provide details about when exactly the British firm restarted its hunt.

The Malaysian government said in December it had agreed to launch a new search for MH370.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others included Malaysians, Indonesians and Australians, as well as Indian, American, Dutch and French nationals.

The plane has never been found despite the largest search in aviation history.

“We’re very relieved and pleased that the search is resuming once again after such a long hiatus,” Malaysian Grace Nathan, 36, who lost her mother on the doomed jet, said.

Jaquita Gonzales, 62, wife of MH370 flight supervisor Patrick Gomes, said she hoped the resumption of the search would bring her family much-needed closure.

“We just want to know where it is and what happened,” she said. “Memories come back like yesterday, it’s fresh in our heads.”

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2025