A new scan of the Indian Ocean scoured nearly 80,000 square kilometers but failed to find any sign of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

But the company looking for the plane - which has been missing for more than four years - said it remains committed. The search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 has expanded into a new area, after exhausting the main search zone without finding the plane. Searchers have so far failed to find the plane, despite exhausting a 25,000km “priority area” that had been identified by Australian experts as MH370’s most likely resting place. Ocean Infinity, the American technology company conducting the latest search, said in an update on Monday that it had scanned up to 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) per day since launching its mission far off the west coast of Australia in late January. The search was conducted both inside and outside the 25,000-square-kilometres area previously identified by Australian authorities as most likely to contain the missing aircraft. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)

"Whilst it's disappointing there has been no sign of MH370 in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau search area and further north, there is still some search time remaining," Ocean Infinity chief executive officer Oliver Plunkett said in a statement. “Everyone at Ocean Infinity remains absolutely determined for the remainder of the search.” He added that thanks to the technology used to scan the Ocean’s floor, the Ocean Infinity had gathered “significant amounts of high quality data”. “Everyone at Ocean Infinity remains absolutely determined for the remainder of the search.”

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people aboard. No transmissions were received from the aircraft after its first 38 minutes of flight, but it is believed to have crashed in the far southern Indian Ocean based on the drift patterns of crash debris that washed ashore on distant beaches. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) had previously searched for MH370 for three years, but the operation was called off in January 2017 after no success. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's final report on the search conceded authorities were no closer to knowing the reasons for the plane's disappearance or its exact location. The governments of Malaysia, China and Australia called off the nearly three-year official search in January 2017, but one year later the Malaysian government pledged to pay Ocean Infinity up to $70 million (£51 million) if it managed to find the wreckage or black boxes of the aircraft within 90 days. The company's Seabed Constructor research vessel is stopping in the West Australian port of Fremantle, for resupply and crew rotation before returning to the search until it's forced to quit in the southern hemisphere's winter.
Searches led by Ocean Infinity move to a new section of the Indian Ocean after the initial search area was cleared without success. If the missing aircraft, which was carrying over 200 people, is not found by mid-June the search will be called off.