Ocean Infinity is back in the hunt for the lost Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, armed with advanced technology and a high-stakes deal structure that underscores its confidence in solving one of aviation’s greatest mysteries. The company’s search vessel, Armada 86 05, is currently scouring a rugged stretch of the Indian Ocean floor, about 1,100 nautical miles west of Perth, in a mission that could last up to 55 days and cover 25,000 square kilometers.
The stakes are high. If Ocean Infinity finds the wreckage of MH370, it will receive $70 million, plus the prestige and advertising rights that come with solving a high-profile, needle-in-a-haystack search. If it doesn’t, the company will receive no compensation. It’s a bold gamble, but Ocean Infinity has a track record of success, having located the wrecks of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, the ore carrier Stellar Daisy, and the Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan, among others.
The search area is a challenging one, with water depths ranging from 1,100 to 4,000 meters and a mix of abyssal plains, valleys, and seamounts. Ocean Infinity’s fleet of acoustic-mapping autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) from Kongsberg will provide detailed imaging of the ocean floor, as well as magnetometer detection for metal debris and laser scanning for close-range imaging.
The task is daunting. MH370 disappeared from radar coverage hours after takeoff, and the only electronic positioning data available is a series of hourly pings received by an Inmarsat satellite. These pings ended about seven hours after the aircraft took off, somewhere over the southern Indian Ocean, around the time the plane would have run out of fuel. The long interval between pings and the one-dimensional data they provided have left a vast search area—a large arc of about 120,000 square kilometers in total—in a region exposed to powerful Southern Ocean weather systems.
Multiple previous searches for MH370 have come up empty-handed, including Ocean Infinity’s own effort in 2018, which covered an 80,000 square kilometer swath of ocean. However, technology has advanced significantly in the intervening years, and Ocean Infinity’s Armada 86 class vessels are a testament to that progress. These lean-crewed, autonomy-capable survey ships are built with high levels of automation, featuring two moonpools and over-the-stern launch and recovery capability for AUVs and ROVs. The ships can even pilot the submersible equipment from shore using remote-control systems.
“This is not just about finding a wreck; it’s about providing answers and closure to the families of the 239 people on board MH370,” said Richard Godfrey, an investigator involved in the search, speaking to The Guardian. “The technology we have now is far more advanced, and we are confident that we can succeed where others have failed.”
Ocean Infinity’s search for MH370 is more than just a mission to find a lost aircraft. It’s a testament to the power of technological innovation and the relentless pursuit of answers. If successful, it could not only solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries but also set a new standard for deep-sea search and recovery operations. The world will be watching as Ocean Infinity’s Armada 86 05 combs the ocean floor, hoping that this time, the search will yield the answers that have eluded us for nearly a decade.