MH370 Search Vessel Still Scanning Area Of Suspected Black Box Pings: Report

The privately funded search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH30 was called off last week but search vessel Seabed Constructor is still looking for the missing plane, a report said Monday . The Malaysian government had signed a "no cure, no fee" deal with U.S.-based company Ocean Infinity in January but the search was suspended after no trace of the plane was found over four years after its disappearance.

Over the last few days, the company's vessel was looking for the Boeing 777-200 in an area of the southern Indian Ocean where Chinese navy ship Haixun 01 detected a suspected black box “ping” less than a month after the jetliner disappeared March 8, 2014, according to Australia's news.com. au.

The vessel headed to the area after the search was called off last week, on May 29. MH370 watchers, including Ireland-based engineer Viv McMahon, suggested Ocean Infinity officials checked the area for possible plane wreckage.

“What we are trying to do is to use the last two days that we have in the north area, at the time they thought it (the ping) was a black box,” Ocean Infinity spokesman Mark Antelme told reporters over the weekend. “If we find something, there will be an announcement. I imagine the protocol is to alert the Malaysian authorities, and families will be notified in a sensitive way.”

But even after the “two days” got over, Seabed Constructor remains in the area and has shown no sign of preparing to leave. The vessel covered more than 6,000 square miles of the search but failed to identify any significant finding.

Two sources close to the search told news.com.au that there are talks of Ocean Infinity resuming the search after winter.

“I don’t think Ocean Infinity is done here,” one source told news.com.au. “They really want to put their name on it (finding MH370).”

However, Malaysian government said late last month it had no plans to begin any new searches. Flight MH370 went missing with 239 people on board while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A multimillion-dollar search for the plane in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean was called off last year.

The biggest lead in the investigation came when a plane flaperon was found by villagers on Réunion Island. Later, authorities confirmed the flaperon belonged to the missing jetliner.

Since the plane went missing, several conspiracy theories emerged about the fate of the jet. Most recently, reports claimed the plane's pilot Captain Zaharie Amad Shah deliberately crashed the jet in the Indian Ocean as part of his "murder-suicide" plan. However, Australian officials rejected the theory.

Other theories about the plane's disappearance included claims of the plane being hijacked, the plane being shot down, and a possible electrical issue resulting in a fire on board the plane, among many others.