Search resumes for missing flight MH370 in Indian Ocean 12 years after it disappeared with 239 people on board

Almost 12 years later Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean with 239 people on board, the search for the wreckage of the Boeing 777 was set to resume on Tuesday in the Indian Ocean – supported by the latest advances in drone technology at sea.

MH370 took off from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur just after midnight on March 8, 2014. It was supposed to be a routine, almost six-hour flight from the north to Beijing.

About 40 minutes later, the plane’s transponder went off, causing it to disappear from air traffic controllers. However, military radar picked up the plane heading west, back towards the Malay Peninsula and out into the world’s third largest body of water, the vast Indian Ocean.

The initial aerial search covers more than 46,000 square kilometers off the west coast of Australia, an area larger than the state of Virginia. But using Drift Analysis, which includes historical ocean and wind data, the people in charge of the search have now narrowed the most likely area to 5,800 square miles.

British-American marine robotics company Ocean Infinity has not yet revealed the location of the new search, but hopes to finally solve this sad mystery by deploying a fleet of the world’s most advanced underwater drones.

Drones, or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), can dive to about 20,000 feet and run for up to 100 hours before they have to get up again. They are equipped with side-scan sonar to create detailed 3D images of the seabed – and whatever it is – as they cruise close to the bottom, following the contour up and down mountains and into hidden tunnels.

AUVs can also use ultrasound imaging to peer beneath the seafloor that has formed over the years, and magnetometers can detect metals in the debris of a missing plane.

If an object of interest is found, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) will be deployed to take a closer look.

So far, less than 30 pieces of debris believed to be from MH370 have washed up on different beaches across the Indian Ocean.

The first one was found in 2015, on the French island of La Réunion, which is more than 400 kilometers off the east coast of Madagascar. A sea cleaner get a flaperon that would help the plane to roll left or right while flying.

Until 2016, more pieces were found washed ashore in Madagascar itself, as well as in Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Mauritius, including the door covering the front landing gear, the right-hand wing, and the panel from where the wing connects to the fuselage – which should be one of the strongest members of the aircraft.

So far, no remains of the flight crew or passengers – who came from 14 countries including China, Australia, France, the United States, Ukraine and Russia – have been found.

The Malaysian government has agreed to pay Ocean Infinity $70 million, but it’s called a “no-find, no-money” contract, meaning the company only gets paid if it finds the missing plane.

Given the huge amount of money invested in the search effort, 70 million dollars will not really be a huge payment, but Ocean Infinity will also be able to boast of solving one of the biggest aviation mysteries in the world since the American pilot Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.