NEW SEARCH FOR MH370 WRECKAGE UNDER WAY OFF AUSTRALIAN COAST

SYDNEY, Feb 25 (Bernama-dpa) -- Nearly 11 years after the unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a new search for the wreckage has begun in the Indian Ocean, reported German news agency dpa quoting media reports.

Over the next few weeks, US- and UK-based technology firm Ocean Infinity will deploy search vessel Armada 78 06 and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to search the seabed for traces of the missing Boeing 777, according to media outlets including Australian broadcaster 9 News and the British newspaper The Telegraph.

The search will focus in an area of about 15,000 square kilometres - with special attention paid to four hotspots where researchers believe the wreck would most likely be - some 1,500 kilometres off the coast of Perth in Western Australia.

The firm, which had already been involved in an earlier unsuccessful search in 2018, has signed a "no find, no fee" contract with the Malaysian government, 9 News reported.

The Malaysia Airlines flight went missing after leaving Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew members on board. It was headed for Beijing but deviated from the flight path, according to radar and satellite data.

Investigators believe the aircraft came down somewhere in the remote southern Indian Ocean. So far, only a few dozen pieces of wreckage have washed up on various coasts. The aircraft's main fuselage, the occupants and the flight data recorder are all still missing. 

--BERNAMA-dpa