Everything you need to know about the latest search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 aircraft

A new search for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 aircraft is underway, more than 10 years after its mysterious and baffling disappearance. 

On March 8, 2014, the Boeing 777 went missing while travelling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 249 passengers on board — most of whom were Chinese nationals, but the flight also included citizens from Malaysia, Canada, France and elsewhere. 

To this day, little is known about the disappearance. The plane likely crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, according to satellite data analysis, and a few small fragments washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. Otherwise, two previous large-scale searches failed to come up with any significant findings. No bodies or large wreckage have ever been found, and no one knows why the plane went down.

But now, a new search is underway, reigniting long-held hopes that the painful mystery might finally be solved.

Here's everything you need to know about the latest hunt for the plane that seemingly vanished without a trace:

Earlier this month, the Malaysian Transport Ministry said Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity would resume a deep-sea hunt for the missing plane on Dec. 30.

The latest search had started in March, but the operation was paused weeks later due to bad weather.

The firm is conducting the search under a "no find, no fee" contract with the Malaysian government. That means, Ocean Infinity could earn $70 million — if substantive wreckage is tracked down.

Multiple reports say it's unclear whether Ocean Infinity has new information about the plane's whereabouts. But the firm's CEO Oliver Punkett said that the company improved its technology following a fruitless search conducted in 2018 under a similar deal.

Punkett has said his team is working with many experts to analyze data, and they've narrowed the search area to the most likely site, according to reports. 

Malaysia's Transport Ministry confirmed that the resumed search would be in "a targeted area assessed to have the highest probability of locating the aircraft." The precise location hasn't been disclosed, but the search will be conducted in a sprawling 15,000-square-kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean.

It’s slated to start intermittently on Tuesday, with the operation lasting 55 days. 

According to Scientific American, the company is deploying a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles for the search. The vehicles hover tens of metres above the seabed and map terrain down to a depth of some 6,000 metres.

The last transmission from the plane was about 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off with "Good night, Malaysian three seven zero," as the plane entered Vietnamese airspace and failed to check in with its controllers.