New MH370 search begins off Aussie coast

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The Malaysian Transport Minister confirmed on Tuesday that a private company was searching for the plane again, with the new search zone about 1500kms west of Perth.

MH370 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. The plane, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, has never been located. Six Australians and a New Zealander living in Western Australia were among those on the flight.

The massive initial search covered three million square kilometres above the water and over 120,000 square kilometres under the sea.

This latest search is being conducted by British firm Ocean Infinity, which was previously involved.

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the contract between his government and Ocean Infinity is currently being negotiated, but the company has gone ahead and deployed its ships anyway.

Ship tracking shows Ocean Infinity's supply ship was approximately 9000kms west of Perth on Sunday.

The Malaysian government announced in December that the search would resume, stating the British company would search for 18 months and would be paid $70 million, but only if the wreck was located.

The Australian government allocated funding last year on the tenth anniversary, but the Australian Transport Safety Bureau isn't involved in this new initiative.

MH370 was last spotted on military radar about 90 minutes after takeoff, heading west over the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Indonesia.

A half hour after the last radar sighting, the airline said it had lost contact with the plane.

Remains of the plane have been discovered in the vicinity of Tanzania and Mozambique.

Australian authorities spent nearly three years investigating; the final report found it was "almost inconceivable" that no answers were found.