The Malaysian government has enlisted US seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity to spearhead the new operation to locate the wreckage of the Boeing 777 on a "no find, no fee" basis.

The company's chartered Norwegian ship Seabed Constructor is heading for a search zone off the coast of Perth, Western Australia, after setting sail from Port Durban in South Africa last night. It us due to arrive on February 7.

The high-tech vessel is carrying several autonomous submarines which can be launched from the boat to scour the seabed for fragments of the jet.

The Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board when it disappeared on March 8 2014.

Its disappearance remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history and sparked the airline industry’s biggest ever search operation costing almost £200m.

The Australian-led search for the plane was suspended in January 2017, much to the anguish of distraught relatives.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau chiefs released findings from international and CSIRO scientists that identified a smaller 25,000sq km area with “a high probability” that it contained the aircraft.

Ocean Infinity, which entered into the “no find, no fee” arrangement with Malaysia in October 2017, will focus its search on that part of the ocean floor.

Australia will provide technical assistance at the request of the Malaysian government.

Two Australian women who lost their husbands in the crash had earlier said they were excited to hear the search might resume.

Melbourne woman Jennifer Chong, whose husband and the father of her two sons, Chong Ling Tan, was on the flight, said she and other relatives had been working for the search to be restarted.

Mother of two Danica Weeks, who lost her husband Paul on the plane, said she was initially physically shaking with joy and felt a “weight lifted” when she read the search might resume.

The women are separately suing the airline as a result of the deaths of their husbands.