New search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 underway 11 years after mystery disappearance

A new search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is underway — in the latest, and perhaps last, attempt to find the plane that mysteriously vanished 11 years ago.

Maritime company Ocean Infinity has relaunched its sea-sweeping search for the lost airliner, picking up where the company left off in 2018, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced Tuesday.

The search will focus on a previously underexamined, nearly 5,800 square-mile area of the Indian Ocean which was selected based on data — including satellite signals and disrupted radio transmissions — that the Malaysian government finds credible, according to Yahoo News.

Four “hotspots” are expected to get special attention as researchers believe wreckage, including the plane’s fuselage, could have settled in those key areas, the Telegraph reported. 

The England- and Texas-based Ocean Infinity is hopeful that this new, and possibly final, search will bear fruit — thanks to the development of new ocean-floor searching drones.

The Armada 7806 vessel is already active in the Indian Ocean, according to the Telegraph, utilizing new and improved autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that are equipped with an array of 3D imagers, sonars, lasers, and cameras.

These AUVs are able to descend nearly four miles and stay submerged for four days — twice as long as the remotely operated drones used in the 2018 search.

Ocean Infinity entered into a “no find, no fee,” contract with the Malaysian government and will not be able to collect the $70 million reward unless they successfully find wreckage from the plane.

One area that will be combed for evidence was determined by the conclusion of ham radio hobbyists — who suggest the doomed flight may have interfered with WSPR transmitters which send thousands of low-power radio pulses around the world every two minutes, the Telegraph reported. 

The radio signals can be disturbed when intercepted by an aircraft. Analysis conducted by retired NASA engineer Richard Godfrey suggests that 130 such disturbances were detected in the Indian Ocean on the night the flight vanished, according to the outlet.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, carrying 239 people and 12 crew members, traveling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia disappeared off the radar 40 minutes into its trip to Beijing, China on March 8, 2014.

In the flight’s last radio transmission, the pilots signed off shortly before the plane’s transponders were turned off.

Military radar from the fateful night showed the plane diverted from its flight path — angling over Northern Malaysia, out into the Andaman Sea, when contact was lost.

Fragments of the plane were found washed ashore on French territory Reunion Island and the east coast of Africa in 2015.