12 years after MH370 disappearance, families urge Malaysia to extend search

Multiple searches in the southern Indian Ocean have all proved fruitless. Read more at straitstimes.com.

KUALA LUMPUR – Families of those aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on March 8 urged the Malaysian government to extend a contract it signed with deep-sea exploration firm Ocean Infinity to continue a search for the aircraft that disappeared 12 years ago.

The Boeing 777 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, becoming one of the world’s enduring aviation mysteries.

Multiple search operations for the plane have been conducted in the southern Indian Ocean since then but all have proved fruitless.

Malaysia in March 2025 agreed to allow Ocean Infinity to resume the hunt under a “no find, no fee” principle, with the firm to be paid US$70 million (S$89.2 million) only if the wreckage was successfully located.

Malaysia’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said on March 8, however, that operations had not yielded any findings so far, after two search phases covering 28 days and around 7,571 sq km of seabed.

Operations were periodically disrupted by weather and sea conditions, with the second phase ending on Jan 23, the AAIB said.