The search resumes for the missing MH370 plane in the Indian Ocean 12 years after its disappearance with 239 people on board

Almost 12 years later Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared Over the Indian Ocean with 239 people on board, the search for the wreckage of the Boeing 777 was scheduled to resume on Tuesday in the Indian Ocean, supported by the latest advances in deep-sea self-guiding drone technology.

MH370 took off from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, shortly after midnight on March 8, 2014. It should have been a routine flight, about six hours north to Beijing.

About 40 minutes later, the plane’s transponder went dark, causing it to disappear from civilian air traffic control monitors. However, military radar detected the plane banking sharply westward, back over the Malaysian peninsula and over the world’s third largest body of water, the vast Indian Ocean.

The initial search for the plane covered more than 46,000 square miles off the coast of Western Australia, an area larger than the state of Virginia. But using drift analysis, incorporating data on the history of ocean currents and winds, the people in charge of the search have now narrowed the area of ​​greatest chance of success to about 5,800 square miles.

British-American deep-sea robotics company Ocean Infinity has not revealed the location of the new search, but hopes to finally solve the tragic mystery by deploying a fleet of the world’s most advanced underwater drones.

Drones, or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), are capable of diving to nearly 20,000 feet and operating for up to 100 hours before needing to resurface. They are equipped with side-scan sonar to create detailed 3D images of the seafloor (and everything on it) as they navigate close to the bottom, following the contour up and down mountains and entering trenches hidden in the abyss.

AUVs can also use ultrasound imaging to look beneath seafloor sediments that have built up over years, as well as magnetometers that could detect metals in the wreckage of the lost aircraft.

If an object of interest is detected, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) will be deployed to take a closer look.

To date, fewer than 30 fragments believed to belong to MH370 have washed up on different coasts of the Indian Ocean.

The first was found in 2015, on the French island of La Réunion, more than 400 miles off the eastern coast of Madagascar. A beach cleaner I found a flaperon that would have helped the plane turn left or right during flight.

Until 2016, More fragments were found washed ashore. in Madagascar, as well as Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Mauritius, including a door that covered the front landing gear, a right wing flap and a panel from which a wing was attached to the plane’s fuselage, which should have been one of the strongest joints on the plane.

So far, no remains have been found of the plane’s crew or passengers, who came from 14 countries, including China, Australia, France, the United States, Ukraine and Russia.

The Malaysian government agreed to pay Ocean Infinity $70 million, but it has been called a “no-find, no-pay” contract, meaning the company is only paid if it finds the missing plane.

Given the enormous amount of money invested in the search effort, $70 million wouldn’t actually be a huge payout, but Ocean Infinity could also claim to have solved one of the world’s biggest aviation mysteries since American aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 somewhere over the central Pacific Ocean.