What is the latest update on the Flight 370 search operation as of 2025?
Executive summary
A new seabed search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was launched under a “no find, no fee” deal with Ocean Infinity in early 2025, backed by a Malaysian government agreement that could pay up to about $70 million if wreckage is located [1] [2]. That campaign deployed advanced autonomous underwater vehicles into a refined ~15,000 km² southern Indian Ocean search area but was interrupted by severe weather in March–April 2025 and formally put on hold to resume at the end of the year, leaving the operation in limbo through most of 2025 [3] [4] [5].
1. Restart secured: contract, politics and payment terms
Malaysia’s government moved from in‑principle approval in December 2024 to a formal arrangement with Ocean Infinity in early 2025, with Transport Minister Anthony Loke announcing cabinet agreement to terms described publicly as contingent on success — a “no‑find, no‑fee” structure that includes payment of roughly $70 million only if the wreck is recovered — a construct framed as protecting public finances while responding to families’ demands [1] [2] [6].
2. Where the search focused and the technology being used
Ocean Infinity committed high‑end marine robotics to scan a refined, high‑probability zone of about 15,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean, deploying long‑endurance Hugin 6000 AUVs and Armada autonomous vessels capable of deep‑sea sonar mapping, optical imaging and three‑dimensional seabed reconstruction to depths of several thousand metres [7] [3] [6]. The company’s prior 2018 effort covered far larger swathes without success, and the 2025 plan emphasized updated modelling, drift studies and improved analytics to narrow the search footprint [7] [6].
3. Timeline in 2025: launch, interruption and suspension
Public records and contemporaneous reporting indicate operations were announced to commence in late February/March 2025, but by early April Ocean Infinity had paused activity after extreme conditions in the “roaring forties”—high winds and waves that made AUV deployment unfeasible—prompting Malaysian officials to say the search would resume at the end of the year rather than continue through 2025 [1] [4] [5]. Real‑time trackers and enthusiast sites logged an initial Phase‑3 sweep beginning where earlier armadas left off, but the field campaign did not produce a confirmed discovery before the pause [8] [4].
4. Prospects, limits and competing interpretations
Proponents argue the concentrated 15,000 km² box plus modern AUVs gives the best practical shot yet, leveraging improved satellite re‑analysis, drift modelling and higher‑resolution seabed survey tools unavailable in earlier efforts [6] [3]. Skeptics caution that even the most sophisticated mapping cannot substitute for hard wreckage and that the southern search terrain—remote, deep and weather‑exposed—has repeatedly frustrated detection efforts, meaning the contingent commercial model shifts much operational risk to the contractor rather than guaranteeing full government commitment [7] [4] [6].
5. Families, transparency and what remains unanswered
Families have pushed for renewed action and some welcomed the 2025 initiative as morally necessary, but the pause has renewed frustration and raised questions about timelines, public disclosure of the refined modelling, and whether geopolitical or commercial incentives shaped the decision to accept a contingent fee deal [2] [6]. Reporting and enthusiast tracking sites provide ongoing updates on vessel movements and “points of interest,” but as of the end of 2025 there was no confirmed recovery of the main wreckage and official investigators continue to point out that physical debris remains the only definitive resolution [8] [9].