MH370 flight has been missing for 12 years; passengers' families urge Malaysian government to expand search

News Topical, Digital Desk : Families of passengers on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Sunday appealed to the Malaysian government to extend the search contract with deep-sea exploration company Ocean Infinity so that the search for the plane, which mysteriously disappeared 12 years ago, can continue. On March 8, 2014, Boeing 77K7 aircraft MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The incident became one of the world's longest-standing aviation mysteries.

Several unsuccessful search operations

Since the plane's disappearance, several large-scale searches have been conducted in the southern Indian Ocean, but no conclusive evidence or major wreckage has been found. In March 2025, the Malaysian government granted Ocean Infinity permission to resume the search under the "no find, no fee" principle. According to this agreement, the company will be paid approximately US$70 million only if the wreckage of the plane is successfully found.

No results even after 28 days of searching

Malaysia's Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said on Sunday that despite searching the seabed for 28 days in two phases and covering about 7,571 square kilometres, no concrete results have been found so far.

According to the AAIB, the search operation was repeatedly interrupted by poor weather and sea conditions. The second phase concluded on January 23.

Government with families 

The AAIB said the Malaysian government is fully committed to providing information to the families of the victims and will continue to provide them with updates as needed.

Voice370, a group representing the families of Flight MH370 passengers, said the winter season in the Southern Hemisphere and deteriorating sea conditions made it unlikely Ocean Infinity would resume the search before its current contract expires in June.

Ocean Infinity asks for contract extension

Voice 370 urged the government to grant Ocean Infinity's contract extension if it requests it, and to apply the same terms to any other interested exploration company. "Simply extending the contract period without changing the key terms would allow exploration operations to continue without delay," the group said.

Ocean Infinity has previously searched for MH370, but no significant debris was found.
Malaysian investigative agencies, in their final report in 2018, did not clarify exactly what happened to the plane, although they did not rule out the possibility that it may have been deliberately derailed.

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