Key Takeaways
- Ocean Infinity mapped 140,000 km² in 151 days, but MH370 remained undiscovered by Jan. 2026.
- Malaysia’s AAIB confirmed 0 wreckage on March 8, 2026, extending the MH370 search into 2027.
- Ocean Infinity’s $70M no-find, no-fee deal keeps MH370 recovery efforts active through June 2027.
More than 12 years after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished from radar on 3/8/2014 with 239 people aboard, the most advanced tools in ocean search still have not produced an answer. Ocean Infinity, a marine robotics firm described by AP and PBS as Texas-based, says it has spent 151 days at sea on the mission since 2018, mapping more than 140,000 square kilometers of seafloor before departing the search area on 1/23/2026. The company’s latest push ran in two short windows, 3/25/2025 to 3/28/2025 and 12/31/2025 to 1/23/2026, logging 28 operational days across about 7,571 square kilometers in the southern Indian Ocean. On 3/8/2026, Malaysia’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau told families that none of it amounted to confirmed wreckage, even as the government has since approved a 12-month extension covering 7/1/2026 through 6/30/2027.
Twelve years after a jet vanished with 239 people aboard, the story of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 still pulls engineers and families into the same cold math: search grids, sonar sweeps, and long odds. On March 8, 2026, Malaysia’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau told relatives that the latest seabed hunt had ended with no confirmed wreckage. For the Texas marine robotics firm leading it, the silence was the update.
A quest spanning years and oceans
The disappearance dates back to March 8, 2014, when the aircraft, a Boeing 777, dropped off radar while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. What followed became the largest and most expensive search effort in aviation history, yet the plane has never been located.
The most recent outcome was blunt. In the March 8, 2026 statement, Malaysian investigators said the renewed seabed search produced no confirmed findings of the aircraft wreckage, even as families continued to press for answers.
What the 2025 to 2026 mission actually covered
The campaign ran in 2 operational phases: March 25 to March 28, 2025, and December 31, 2025 to January 23, 2026. Across 28 operational search days, the teams covered about 7,571 square kilometers, or 2,923 square miles, of seabed in the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity under a “no-find, no-fee” contract in a newly identified 15,000-square-kilometer, or 5,800-square-mile, site. The deal put $70 million on the line, payable only if wreckage is discovered.
Robotics, precision, and the limits of certainty
Ocean Infinity says its MH370 work is cumulative, not confined to one season. As of its departure from the search area on January 23, 2026, the company reported 151 days at sea and more than 140,000 square kilometers of seafloor mapped since first embarking on the mission in 2018, per its own update.
Oliver Plunkett, CEO of Ocean Infinity, summed up the result and the pace in stark terms: “we haven’t been able to find it,” even with “a level of precision and speed unimaginable in 2018.” Malaysia’s investigators also noted the company had conducted additional survey activities in the wider region before the March 25, 2025 agreement was formally signed.
The next window is on the calendar
The latest hunt is widely described as the fourth major search phase since 2014, following earlier government-led efforts and a towfish search from October 2014 to June 2015. Families have publicly asked for it to continue, and Malaysia’s Cabinet approved a 12-month extension from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, reported by the extension coverage.
