Last year, there was an encouraging development about the search resuming for MH370, Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 that went missing in 2024. With yesterday being the 12th anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, there’s a sad update, which is that the search didn’t turn up any new findings. Let’s cover the details…
MH370 is modern aviation’s greatest mystery
The most mysterious commercial air disaster ever is what happened to MH370, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER that went missing back in March 2014. The plane was carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Beijing (PEK), when it disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff.
Aviation is incredibly safe, and accidents are super rare, so it’s bad enough when that happens. But what takes this to the next level is that the plane was never found. When a plane disappears from radar, that typically tells you where the plane went down. However, that wasn’t the case here — how is it possible for a 777 to simply go missing?
We’ve seen all kinds of theories as to what could have happened, and a 2023 Netflix show even took a close look at this. Was there some catastrophic technical failure? Was it a carefully planned terror plot by the captain? While small parts of the plane’s wreckage have been found, a vast majority of the plane remains unaccounted for.
Frankly, I have a hard time imagining any scenario where this wasn’t an intentional act on the part of the captain (which is the leading international theory).
Keep in mind the captain had a flight simulator at home that showed a very specific path departing Kuala Lumpur, which ultimately ended with the plane ditching in the Indian Ocean. That would be quite a wild coincidence, no?
Then there’s also the question of whether his actual target was initially MH150, rather than MH370. A little over a month before the disappearance, two days before piloting MH150 to Jeddah (JED), the captain used his home simulator to plot out a flight into the Indian Ocean, using exactly the same amount of fuel that this Jeddah flight would have.
The latest search for MH370 wreckage has ended
For three years following the disappearance of MH370, we saw a global investigation into this, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, whereby 120,000 square kilometers of the sea was searched. The search was officially called off in early 2017. However, in 2018, we saw seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity resume the search for a few months on a “no find, no fee” basis, as part of a contract with the Malaysian government.
That didn’t end up being successful, and until 2025, no serious effort was put into finding the wreckage. Fortunately at that point, the Malaysian government announced that it had reached an agreement to resume the search for MH370. The country’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, revealed that the government had a $70 million contract with Ocean Infinity, the same company that was involved in past searches.
Once again, this was done on a “no find, no fee” basis, with Ocean Infinity only being paid if substantial wreckage was found. In March 2025, Ocean Infinity’s support vessel, Armanda 7806, and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), were deployed in a new search area in the South Indian Ocean, around 1,900 kilometers off the coast of Perth, Australia.
This time around, the search was focused specifically on a 15,000 square kilometer area, compared to the 200,000 square kilometers that were searched in the past. However, the search was called off in April 2025 due to bad weather.
Several months later, in December 2025, the search resumed. The search then lasted through February 2026. Unfortunately we’ve just learned that no new wreckage has been found, so this effort wasn’t successful.
This is a sad update, as the families of the victims deserve some closure. For that matter, the aviation community at large can’t settle for a 777 just going missing without a trace — it’s important to understand what exactly happened.
Then again, one wonders how much wreckage is even remaining at this point, and how much could be concluded based on it. I suppose it all depends on how the plane impacted water, and whether it was in one piece at the time, or broke up into a countless number of pieces.
Bottom line
The latest search for MH370 has ended with no success. This follows the Malaysian government having a $70 million “no find, no fee” contract with Ocean Infinity, based on finding substantial wreckage. There were claims that there was “credible” data pointing to the new search site, so it’s unfortunate that didn’t prove successful.
Families deserve closure, though as time goes on, the likelihood of that happening decreases.
What do you make of the search for MH370 resuming?