Malaysia has suspended the latest search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, less than six weeks after operations resumed in the southern Indian Ocean. The announcement comes over a decade after the Boeing 777 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard, in what remains one of the most enduring mysteries in aviation history.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording distributed Thursday that the marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity, which had been conducting the search, has paused operations due to seasonal limitations. "They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year," Loke stated, according to AFP.
The United Kingdom- and U.S.-based company launched its most recent search mission in February under a "no-find, no-fee" agreement with the Malaysian government. The arrangement stipulates that Ocean Infinity will only be compensated-up to $70 million-if the aircraft wreckage is located.
"Right now, it's not the season," Loke reiterated during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. "Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate."
Ocean Infinity previously led a failed search in 2018, following an earlier multination effort led by Australia that scoured 120,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean with minimal results. The new operation focused on a 15,000-square-kilometer arc west of Perth, Australia, identified using updated satellite and radio transmission data deemed "credible" by researchers.
The current mission deployed the company's advanced Armada 7806 vessel, which carries autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) capable of descending 6 kilometers and remaining submerged for four days-twice as long as earlier models. The AUVs were directed from Ocean Infinity's control hub in Southampton via satellite link.
According to marine tracking data, Armada 7806 arrived in the designated search zone in February. The search had already begun scanning four high-probability crash zones identified by data analysts before the pause was announced.
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, roughly 40 minutes into a scheduled six-hour journey. Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals, with the remainder from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, and other countries.
A final investigative report released in 2018 stated that the aircraft's flight path had been manually altered and acknowledged lapses in air traffic control, but it offered no definitive explanation for the disappearance. Investigators did not rule out the possibility that someone other than the pilots diverted the aircraft.
Among the many theories surrounding the case is speculation that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah may have deliberately crashed the plane. However, no conclusive evidence has supported that or other claims.
Relatives of the missing passengers have continued to call for renewed efforts and greater transparency. Last month, on the 11th anniversary of the disappearance, family members held demonstrations in Beijing, with chants of "Give us back our loved ones!" and signs reading "When will the 11 years of waiting and torment end?"
