![A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 takes off during a past flight.- [image via wikimedia commons/Laurent Errera]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2018/1/6/660x290/b_502x220x82/a-malaysian-airlines-boeing-777-takes-off-during-a-past-flightimage-via-wikimedia-commonslaurent-errera_1764453.jpg "A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 takes off during a past flight.- [image via wikimedia commons/Laurent Errera]")
A US-based company, Ocean Infinity, has begun a second search for Malaysian Airlines MH370, which disappeared four years ago. The marine company dispatched a search vessel early this week to begin the search of one of aviation's biggest mysteries, according to Fox News reports.
The first search attempt, which was conducted by three countries, Australia, Malaysia, and China, was called off in January last year, after three years without bearing fruit.
In a final report after the search was called off, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau admitted that it was not any closer to discovering the circumstances of the Boeing 777's disappearance, or the exact location of its wreckage.
No cure, no fee contract terms
According to the terms of the "no cure, no fee" search contract between the Malaysian Government and Ocean Infinity, the company will not be paid unless they find the plane's wreckage.
Announcing the new search efforts for the elusive flight MH370 on Saturday (Jan. 6), Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Ting Lai added the search would cover an area mapped out by Australian experts as the most likely location to find the wreckage.
Lai also stressed that he did not want to offer high hopes to families and friends of the victims, but promised the Malaysian Government would not give up in its quest to solve the mystery of flight MH370's disappearance.
Difficult search ahead
In a statement, the Houston-based marine surveyor company said their search vessel, Seabed Constructor, left the South African port of Durban on Tuesday (Jan. 2) and headed straight to the search area.
The statement further added the company would take advantage of the prevailing favorable weather to begin the search in earnest.
The previous three-nation search ran into difficulties from the onset, as the system designed to transmit the plane's location automatically after 38 minutes, failed. Other methods such as studying satellite imagery also proved futile, but the search team was able to map out an area approximately the size of Vermont where the plane was most likely to be found.
Ocean Infinity will be using autonomous underwater vehicles, compared to sonar vehicles used in the previous search, which were attached to cables, and encountered problems when they came across rough terrain or bad weather.
Autonomous underwater vehicles can reach depths of up to 20,000 feet and have the ability to move faster, which will be an added advantage for the US company.
Malaysian Airlines flight MH-370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, together with all 239 passengers and crew on board. To date, only three confirmed pieces of the ill-fated plane's wreckage have been found washed up on the western Indian Ocean Shores.
The largest piece was a wing-part which measured two meters known as the flaperon.
