Ocean Infinity

Forty minutes into the flight, the captain spoke his last words to air traffic control.

Good night, Malaysian 370 minutes later the transponders switched off the plane turned sharply left flew back across malaysia and disappeared no distress call no ransom demand no claim of responsibility no main wreckage no bodies more than twelve years later malaysia airlines flight m h three seventy remains the greatest aviation mystery in history the most expensive search in aviation history has failed to find the plane a second search by ocean infinity covered more than one hundred twelve thousand square kilometers and stopped in two thousand eighteen a new search began in march twenty twenty five was suspended for weather restarted in december and concluded in january twenty twenty six having produced no new findings the plane is still out there somewhere and what happened to it is still unknown tonight we examine the evidence the credible theories and the conspiracy claims that have grown in the absence of answers Detailed Explanation What is known about MH370's final hours is pieced together from radar data, satellite communications, and the small number of debris pieces that have been recovered.

The picture it forms is extraordinary, not because it is mysterious, but because it is deliberate.

The Transponder and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System , were switched off shortly after the last radio contact these systems do not switch themselves off someone in the cockpit disabled them the plane then flew for approximately seven more hours tracked intermittently by satellite handshakes automated signals that established the plane's approximate position without providing a specific location.

Malaysian authorities' early failures to share military radar data are documented and real.

The investigation's ultimate failure to identify a cause is genuinely unsatisfying.

They also note that Ocean Infinity's new search in 2025 and 2026 focused on a specific priority zone identified by updated drift modeling.

If the plane is not in that zone, it is either because the modeling is wrong or because the plane did not end up where the satellite data suggests.

Forty minutes into the flight, the captain spoke his last words to air traffic control.

Good night, Malaysian 370 minutes later the transponders switched off the plane turned sharply left flew back across malaysia and disappeared no distress call no ransom demand no claim of responsibility no main wreckage no bodies more than twelve years later malaysia airlines flight m h three seventy remains the greatest aviation mystery in history the most expensive search in aviation history has failed to find the plane a second search by ocean infinity covered more than one hundred twelve thousand square kilometers and stopped in two thousand eighteen a new search began in march twenty twenty five was suspended for weather restarted in december and concluded in january twenty twenty six having produced no new findings the plane is still out there somewhere and what happened to it is still unknown tonight we examine the evidence the credible theories and the conspiracy claims that have grown in the absence of answers Detailed Explanation What is known about MH370's final hours is pieced together from radar data, satellite communications, and the small number of debris pieces that have been recovered.

The picture it forms is extraordinary, not because it is mysterious, but because it is deliberate.

The Transponder and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System , were switched off shortly after the last radio contact these systems do not switch themselves off someone in the cockpit disabled them the plane then flew for approximately seven more hours tracked intermittently by satellite handshakes automated signals that established the plane's approximate position without providing a specific location.

Malaysian authorities' early failures to share military radar data are documented and real.

The investigation's ultimate failure to identify a cause is genuinely unsatisfying.

They also note that Ocean Infinity's new search in 2025 and 2026 focused on a specific priority zone identified by updated drift modeling.

If the plane is not in that zone, it is either because the modeling is wrong or because the plane did not end up where the satellite data suggests.

The search isn't over.

In February 2025, the Malaysian government approved a new search, hiring a company called Ocean Infinity to scan 15,000 square kilometers of fresh seabed.

It was on no find, no fee terms, which means they won't get a penny unless there are results.

But the reward was about $70 million if they located the wreck.

And on March 8th, 2026, the 12th anniversary of the disappearance, Malaysian officials told the families the result.

Still nothing.

Since it first joined the hunt in 2018, Ocean Infinity alone says it spent more than 150 days at sea, that they've mapped over 140,000 square kilometers of ocean floor looking for this single plane.

And rather than stop, the government has approved keeping the effort alive, extending the window into 2027.

Your view towards the sort of defence industry here in Australia, what do you think they're doing really, really well and sort of a little bit more than just hang in there? You know, what would you say to them?

You know, I was, got the chance to go to Tasmania recently and there's a British company called Ocean Infinity that moved there.

to Tasmania because of that innovative synergistic environment of being on a relatively kind of small landmass but surrounded by other people that are interested in getting into the Antarctic, they're interested in undersea, they're interested in remote capabilities, you've got the University of Tasmania there, a whole bunch of sort of academics who focus on it as well and it's about that critical mass.

And it works in Tasmania.

They will seek the resources they need to get to the prototype phase and to get it out there.

They will network like crazy to find out who's going to help them get there.

And for us, you know, the fact that British companies are moving here to be part of that, you know, Ocean Infinity do great things with uncrewed systems that basically act as kind of rental cars for the kind of secret data domain, getting out there into the maritime space, doing whatever sensing you want, and then you return it the next month with no scratches on, you get your deposit back.

So, Brits coming to Australia to be part of that ecosystem, we're seeing every week, every month, that statement of faith in Australia.

Where exactly is MH370? That's the million-dollar question, and that's the question that's going to underpin the next phase of the seabed search.

As you'll remember this past June, Malaysia said that they had granted the private marine survey company Ocean Infinity an extension to their no-fine, no-fee contract and indicated that the company could start searching Southern Indian sometime this fall, maybe November, probably running until April.

There's still no confirmation that Ocean Infinity is going to do that, but assuming that they do do that, Where are they going to look? In today's episode, we're going to unpack the clues to figure out where exactly ocean infinity will look if it does look.

This is important stuff if you want to rigorously assess what could have happened to the plane, because the realm of possible search areas is tightly constrained by hard science, by satellite signal analysis, aircraft performance, bayesian inference, ocean drift analysis.

In other words, this is foundational stuff if you really want to crack the case of MH370 through rigorous analysis and not just go off of vibes and rumor.

And at that point, nobody expected that that search would ever happen because it costs a lot of money.

It requires very specific equipment and technical knowledge.

Well, then came Ocean Infinity and.

um so we've got to be uh maintaining the things that we're incredibly good at which is consistency stability and the incredible businesses that we have working here in london but we cannot be complacent about the future and i think that means that the uk needs to continue to play uh a really ambitious uh forward-thinking role when it comes to our work through the IMO and international fora to kind of push the regulatory frameworks that we have further.

But the UK also needs to not be shy and to be unashamedly competitive in terms of capturing market shares in what is definitely going to define the future of maritime innovation in decades to come and I see that particularly being in autonomous shipping and we have Ocean Infinity and lots of firms in the United Kingdom doing pioneering work in this space and the MCA and the government needs to keep pace with the scale of their ambition.

But it's also playing our cards right and ensuring that when it comes to new fuels and also nuclear-powered maritime, that we are making sure that we have a stable regulatory framework in the United Kingdom, but also for those new technologies that are coming down the track, The government is as adaptive as keen as willing to innovate as the private sector is and that's a balance that we're constantly seeking to strike and hopefully you feel that we're getting it right but we are certainly not complacent about our status at the moment.

It's very good

The payment would depend on finding the aircraft.

The company was Ocean Infinity, and it intended to send several underwater vehicles into the search at once.

In 2018, the search vessel Seabed Constructor brought Ocean Infinity's underwater vehicles into the Indian Ocean.

Autonomous vehicles could survey separate areas during the same period.

The mission still needed planning, supervision, recovery, and data analysis.

No confirmed location of the main wreckage emerged.

That result left the investigation with an expanded record of seabed surveys and another completed expedition.

Ocean Infinity expressed its intention to remain involved.