A Texas-based marine robotics firm has launched a mission to unearth the long-lost wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which mysteriously disappeared with 239 individuals aboard in 2014. This ambitious 55-day search commenced on Tuesday, marking another chapter in the ongoing quest to solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

Ocean Infinity, headquartered in Austin, Texas, secured a significant agreement with the Malaysian government, as announced by the country’s Ministry of Transport in early December. This partnership aims to leverage the company’s cutting-edge technology in the search effort.

Equipped with state-of-the-art underwater vehicles, deep-sea drones, and sophisticated scanning equipment, Ocean Infinity will conduct an extensive exploration. However, the mission is bound by a 55-day timeframe as stipulated by Malaysian authorities.

The search will focus on a 6,000-square-mile area on the seabed of the Indian Ocean, where the elusive Boeing 777 is believed to have vanished. The plane disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s bustling capital. The flight was destined for Beijing, carrying 239 passengers and crew members, but it never reached its destination.

The Malaysia Airlines plane, a Boeing 777, disappeared from air traffic radar on March 8, 2014 shortly after departing from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur. The 239 passengers and crew were set to arrive in Beijing that same day.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese. There were also Malaysians, Americans, Australians and other nationalities on board.

The confounding disappearance of the entire plane rocked the world and remains one of the single-largest unsolved mysteries to date.

No bodies or wreckage were ever found, and the pilots didn’t issue a distress call. The plane’s location-tracking transponder stopped broadcasting entirely shortly after departing from Kuala Lumpur.

Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south toward the Indian Ocean, where officials believed it had crashed.

The immediate search for the plane was called off after just 22 days because of bad weather. It never resumed, and everyone aboard the plane was presumed dead.

Sparse pieces of suspected debris have washed up on Indian Ocean islands and along the African coast, but no human remains or any significant portions of wreckage have been found.

The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China launched a joint underwater search in 2014 — the largest and most expensive in aviation history. They covered a 46,000-square-mile area in the southern Indian Ocean.

The operation concluded in 2017 and produced very little relevant discoveries.

In 2018, Ocean Infinity assumed control over the search for three months and promised to only accept payment if they found the actual wreckage. The same “no-find, no-fee” contract still stands for the current search.

Should Ocean Infinity locate the aircraft, it will receive a payment of $70 million. 

The victims’ families, meanwhile, are still embroiled in lawsuits against Malaysia Airlines. A Beijing court ordered compensation for eight Chinese families in early December, marking a major victory in the years-long stall.