Where Is Flight MH370? Final Investigation Report Likely After Ocean Infinity Deal

The release date of the final investigation report into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 depends on the negotiation between the government and the seabed exploration company, Ocean Infinity. The United States-based technology firm company is likely to commence a new mission to search for the aircraft, which went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysia's Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said Tuesday the final report is being prepared, according to the New Straits Times.

“As enshrined in Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention, a final crash report should be issued within one year from the announcement of the search operation suspension based on the findings of the investigation team," he said. “The report will also put up proposals on improving civil aviation industry security in the country to various interested parties."

Malaysian government is currently negotiating terms with Ocean Infinity, which has proposed the search for MH370 begin next month or in January under the "no cure, no fee" structure, according to which the company will be paid only if the aircraft is found.

“While I am hopeful of a successful search, I’m conscious of not raising hopes for the loved ones of those on board,” Darren Chester, Australia’s Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, said in a statement in October. “I hope that this new search will bring answers, both for the next of kin and for the rest of the world.”

More than three years of a multimillion-dollar search for Flight MH370 yielded no concrete clues about the jet's whereabouts, making it one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

In January, Malaysia, Australia and China announced the suspension of the search for the plane, which is believed to have crashed in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. Families of those on board the missing plane requested authorities not to halt the search.

The only positive clue so far about the plane's disappearance came when debris pieces washed up on the shores of islands in the Indian Ocean. After analyzing the pieces, authorities said some of them came from the missing jet. But these too could not shed light as to what may have happened to the doomed Boeing 777-200.