• Search for missing Malaysian plane continues
• American robotic company to join the search

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport announced that the search for the missing MH370 plane will resume on December 30, with the participation of a specialized American robotic company.

This comes more than a decade after the plane’s disappearance in one of the biggest aviation mysteries in history.

The ministry said the new search operations will continue for 55 days intermittently, focusing on areas likely to contain the plane’s wreckage, without revealing specific locations.

The MH370 flight had deviated from its course and disappeared from air traffic radars on March 8, 2014, during a routine trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers of various nationalities, mostly from China, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, India, France, the United States, Iran, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia, and Taiwan.

Daniska Wicks, the wife of one of the Australian passengers, expressed relief at the search resuming, saying: "We are very grateful and relieved that the Malaysian government is committed to continuing the search, and we hope this next phase will provide the answers we have been waiting for since March 8, 2014."

Since the plane’s disappearance, vast areas of the Indian Ocean have been searched for wreckage by multinational efforts, particularly without success.

Malaysia announced its readiness to reopen the investigation if new evidence emerges and signed an agreement with the American company on a “no find – no fee” basis for a 15,000 square km area, with $70 million paid only if the wreckage is found.

The last search activity in the southern Indian Ocean had stopped in April due to bad weather conditions.

Previous investigations showed that the B777-200 plane departed Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. local time, and was scheduled to land in Beijing around 6:30 a.m., but it disappeared before arrival.

This prompted Malaysian, Australian, and Chinese authorities to end underwater search operations in January 2017 after two and a half years covering 120,000 square km.

The official Malaysian investigation in 2018 concluded that the plane had been manually diverted in the air, and that “illegal third-party interference” could not be ruled out, rejecting mechanical failure as a cause of disappearance.

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport confirmed that “the latest development reflects the Malaysian government’s commitment to providing answers to victims’ families and helping end their suffering.”