The seemingly endless search for doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is set to resume on December 30, having briefly restarted in March, only to be delayed until the end of the year due to poor weather conditions.

The missing plane has been the subject of a number of search operations over the years, with the latest hunt undertaken by Ocean Infinity, a U.K.- and U.S.-based search and exploration company working on a “no find, no fee” basis.

Yet, more than a decade after the plane went missing, it remains unclear whether Ocean Infinity will succeed where all other search operations have failed – and prompts further speculation about what really happened to the Boeing 777.

To recap briefly: On March 8, 2014, a plane operated by Malaysia Airlines took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing in China, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, including a Malaysian pilot and co-pilot.

Just 38 minutes after take off, while over the South China Sea and crossing from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace, air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur signed off and passed the plane to its Vietnamese counterpart with the words “Malaysian three seven zero, contact Ho Chi Minh one two zero decimal nine. Good night.”

“Goodnight Malaysian three seven zero,” came the reply, thought to be from Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, at 1.19 a.m. Malaysia time. At 1.22 a.m., the plane abruptly vanished from both Malaysian and Vietnamese radar screens.

It was still visible, however, on military radar, and was captured turning sharply left across the Malay Peninsula before moving beyond the range of military radar.

It is thought that the plane skirted the tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and flew out across the........

© The Diplomat