This picture taken on March 10, 2014 shows students at Hailiang International School lighting candles to pray for the passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in Zhuji, in China’s Zhejiang Province. — AFP/VNA Photo

KUALA LUMPUR — The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will resume on December 30, more than a decade after the plane disappeared, Malaysia's transport ministry said on December 3.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people vanished from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in one of aviation's greatest enduring mysteries.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others included Malaysian, Indonesian, Australian, Indian, American, Dutch and French nationals.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found to date.

Kuala Lumpur said in a statement it "wishes to update that the deep-sea search for (the) missing wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be resuming on 30 December 2025".

Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity will be conducting the search "in an targeted area assessed to have the highest probability of locating the aircraft", the ministry said.

The latest search in the southern Indian Ocean was suspended in April as it was "not the season".

It was conducted on the "no find, no fee" principle as Ocean Infinity's previous search, with the government only paying out if the firm finds the aircraft.

Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the US, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year. The company said it will be paid 70 million USD if the wreckage is discovered.

An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000sq.km (46,300 square miles) in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris. — VNA/VNS