A LAST-DITCH attempt to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is set to resume today after vanishing without a trace 11 years ago.
The search is formed of a final £50million bid to bring “closure” to families of the 239 people who were on board the doomed flight.
8 A computer-generated image of what MH370 could look like hurtling into the seaCredit: National Geographic
8 Ocean Infinity’s search vessel has been deployed to a new search zone in the southern Indian OceanCredit: Ocean Infinity
8 A US Navy Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle being deployed in the southern Indian Ocean in the hunt the aircraftCredit: Reuters
The final push for answers is due to last for 55 days and will cover a vast area of 5,790 square miles in the southern Indian Ocean.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, disappeared in 2014 while travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
It disappeared off flight radars with none of the passengers, crew or the aircraft being found during the largest search in aviation history.
Several searches are yet to produce any clear explanations but now a whopping £56million is being spent in a final bid for the truth.
Exploration firm Ocean Infinity has offered its services to Malaysian officials on a “no find, no fee” basis – meaning it only gets the cash if the wreckage is found.
Ocean Infinity is expected to dispatch its cutting-edge mothership, the Armada 7806, to a newly identified high-priority zone sat 1,200 miles off Perth, Australia.
Armed with state-of-the-art autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and high-resolution sonar, the vessel will systematically scan the seabed.
Despite having 55 days to search, the crew are expected to go out intermittently across the next two months.
Experts believe this is the last realistic chance of solving aviation’s wildest disappearance.
Only around 33 pieces of debris — either confirmed or deemed highly likely to be from MH370 — have ever been found.
They’ve turned up in La Reunion, Mauritius, Madagascar, Tanzania and South Africa.
Another suspected piece, part of a wing spoiler, was found in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 2021.
Experts say after all this time currents would have washed them there from the presumed crash site on the other side of the Indian Ocean near Western Australia.
Analysis of one piece of the wreckage suggested the missing plane spiralled into the sea in an uncontrolled “ghost dive”.
Experts say part of a wing spoiler was ripped off – dismissing a past theory that the plane glided to the surface in a controlled ditching.
A last-ditch probe had begun in March but was cut short by bad weather – and so organisers decide to kickstart the mission again today.
Malaysia’s transport ministry said at the start of the month: “The latest development underscores the [Malaysia’s] commitment to providing closure to the families affected by this tragedy.”
This is the third major search for MH370, following two large-scale missions that ended in failure.
8 Only around 33 pieces of debris — either confirmed or deemed highly likely to be from MH370 — have ever been foundCredit: EPA
8 Family members of passengers and crew on board the missing flight stand together at a memorial event last yearCredit: Reuters
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The first was a multinational effort covering 120,000 sq km of seabed.
The second was through Ocean Infinity who tried to locate the plane in a 2018 expedition but it ended after three months without success.
Search efforts have been led by Australia and Malaysia due to the nationalities of those on board.
Twelve Malaysian crew and 227 passengers, most of whom were Chinese citizens, were on the flight.
Elsewhere, there were 38 Malaysian passengers, seven Australian nationals and residents from Indonesia, India, France, the US, Iran, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia and Taiwan.
Families of the victims on board have refused to give up hope and have constantly campaigned for more searches of the Indian Ocean.
Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was one of the Australian passengers, says her family have “never stopped wishing for answers”.
8 This image shows the vessel going back and forth over the search area – the red zone is what has been previously searchedCredit: x/BigOceanData
She said: “I truly hope this next phase gives us the clarity and peace we’ve been so desperately longing for, for us and our loved ones, since March 8th 2014.”
It comes as many of the families as well as aviation experts continue to dispute the official reason given by Malaysian officials over the cause of the disappearance.
A 2018 investigation concluded the plane was manually turned around mid-air instead of it being on autopilot mode at the time.
They also refused to rule out “unlawful interference by a third party” amid speculation over if the plane could have been hijacked by foreign players.
However, the report did dismiss theories that had suggested the pilot and first officer brought the flight MH370 down in a suicide mission.
Mechanical failure was also ruled out as a cause.