December 3, 2025
2 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm
Autonomous Deep-Sea Robots to Lead New Search for Missing Flight MH370
Texas-based firm Ocean Infinity will send swarms of autonomous underwater vehicles into the southern Indian Ocean in a high-risk attempt to locate this missing jet
ROB GRIFFITH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Malaysia is restarting the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The nation is sending ships and robots into one of the planet’s loneliest stretches of ocean in the hope of solving one of aviation’s most haunting mysteries.
The Boeing 777 plane vanished in 2014 with 239 people onboard. Starting on December 30, the Texas-based seabed-mapping firm Ocean Infinity will spend 55 days sweeping a 15,000-square-kilometer (about 5,800-square-mile) swath of the southern Indian Ocean that investigators believe could hold the jet’s wreckage.
It’s a high-stakes mission: the “no find, no fee” deal means Malaysia could pay Ocean Infinity up to $70 million but only if the firm produces substantive wreckage. Officials are keeping the precise target zone a secret yet say it’s based on satellite “handshake” tracking data and painstaking reconstructions of how dozens of debris fragments might have drifted across the Indian Ocean before they washed onshore.
On supporting science journalism
If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
The company is leaning on a more mature generation of ocean technology: largely uncrewed surface vessels coordinating swarms of autonomous underwater vehicles that can hover a few tens of meters above the seabed and map terrain down to a depth of nearly 6,000 meters with multibeam sonar, sub-bottom profilers and high-resolution imaging. Ocean Infinity says its upgraded system can cover more ground at higher resolution and with a smaller carbon footprint than traditional survey fleets.
The new search comes after years of looking in vain. From 2014 to 2017, Malaysia, Australia and China searched 120,000 square kilometers of seafloor at a cost of roughly $155 million (more than $200 million today). In 2018 Ocean Infinity scanned more than 100,000 additional square kilometers. None of those campaigns found the main wreckage or any victims. Just three confirmed pieces of wing have ever been recovered.
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
