The Malaysian government announced Sunday that it was pushing for a renewed search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared nearly 10 years ago while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Flight MH370 was a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it disappeared on March 8, 2014.
The plane's disappearance ranks among the world's biggest aviation mysteries after Australia, China and Malaysia ended a failed $157 million search effort in January 2017.
Malaysian investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the commercial plane deliberately veered off course as debris confirmed and suspected to be from the plane washed up on African coasts and Indian Ocean islands .
Retired fisherman claims he found part of Malaysia Airlines MH370 in southern Australian waters: REPORT
A young child watches Malaysia Airlines planes on the tarmac, hoping for the return of the missing flight, MH370, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday March 11, 2014 . (Joshua Paul/NurPhoto/NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images)
On Sunday, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Ocean Infinity, a US-based seabed exploration company, had been invited to discuss the latest research proposal after two previous failures.
“The Malaysian government is committed to the search (for MH370) and the search must continue,” Loke said at a commemorative event on Sunday.
The minister also said Malaysia would discuss cooperation with Australia to resume research once the Ocean Infinity proposal is approved by the Malaysian government.
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CASSA Malaysia President Dr Jacob George shows the coordinates of where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is believed to have crashed during a press conference on January 16, 2019 in Subang Jaya, outside Kuala Lumpur , in Malaysia. (Mohd Samsul Mohd said/Getty Images)
Ocean Infinity did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's inquiries about the matter.
One of the victims of the ill-fated theft was Anne Daisy, and her husband, RVP Nathan, said Ocean Infinity's proposal included a “no search, no fee” option, which he welcomed.
“We want the research to continue, but we also have to be realistic,” he said. “We cannot expect the government to spend billions [on the search]”.
The flight's disappearance sparked a years-long search that resulted in a series of confusing and convoluted revelations that have yet to lead to a solid conclusion about what happened. After three years, Malaysian authorities called off the search, and subsequent search efforts remained short-lived.
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Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke (center) examines the wing flap found on Pemba Island, Tanzania, which was identified as a missing part of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 using part numbers aircraft assigned to 9M-MRO during a commemoration event to mark the 5th anniversary of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 3, 2019. (Adli Ghazali/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
A Netflix documentary released in March 2020 examined the timeline of the plane's disappearance, speaking to some of the most prominent voices and actors involved in the response and search for the plane.
The documentary also reignited some of the wildest theories about what happened to the plane.
After it disappeared, the plane emitted several “pings” which London satellite company Inmarsat recorded and tracked over the next six hours.
The pings allowed the company to confirm that the plane had turned back over Malaysia before the final ping somewhere over the Indian Ocean. After that, the mystery deepened. Inmarsat used the data to determine that the plane had flown south into the Indian Ocean rather than banking north over mainland Asia.
Over the next few years, Blaine Gibson, a self-described amateur “adventurer,” found several pieces of the plane washed up on islands around the Indian Ocean that aviation authorities believed matched the Boeing 777. And they determined that this was sufficient proof that the plane crashed as no other planes were reported missing in the years that followed. This is the closest thing to confirmation that families will get, they say.
Last year, a retired fisherman claimed to have found a large piece of the missing plane off the coast of Australia.
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Kit Olver, a retired Australian fisherman, said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald that he discovered the piece of the plane during a deep-sea fishing expedition when his trawler raised what appeared to be a wing .
He said he had remained silent for nine years but wanted to provide information to help the families of those on board MH370.
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten of Fox News Digital and Reuters contributed to this report.