Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370), also marketed as China Southern Airlines Flight 748 (CZ748) through a codeshare, was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport (a distance of 4,399 kilometres (2,733 mi)). On 8 March 2014, the aircraft flying the route, a Boeing 777-200ER, went missing less than an hour after takeoff. Operated by Malaysia Airlines (MAS), the aircraft carried 12 crew members (all Malaysian nationals) and 227 passengers from 14 nations.
A joint search and rescue effort, later reported as the largest in history, was initiated in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. The search area was later extended to include the Strait of Malacca, Andaman Sea, and the Indian Ocean. On 15 March, investigators believed that the aircraft had first headed west back across the Malay Peninsula, then continued on a northern or southern track for approximately seven hours.
Two satellite images taken on 16 and 18 March showed potential aircraft debris in the southern Indian Ocean southwest of Western Australia, prompting increased search activity in the area. On 24 March, the Malaysian government confirmed analyses by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Inmarsat concluded "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the aircraft had gone down in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors.
Since 22 March, there have been almost daily sightings of marine debris in the search area made by various countries' satellites.However, none of the photographed objects have been positively confirmed as belonging to the missing aircraft. Revised estimates of the flight's remaining fuel for its untracked route after losing radar contact, caused on 28 March a move of the search area to 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) north-east of the previous search area.
On 29 March 2014, the Government of Malaysia and the AAIB stated that, in accordance with the protocols detailed in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 13 concerning aircraft accident investigation, an international team will investigate the loss of the flight.
Disappearance
The flight departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 8 March 2014 at 00:41 local time (16:41 UTC, 7 March) and was scheduled to land at Beijing Capital International Airport at 06:30local time (22:30 UTC, 7 March). It climbed to its assigned cruise altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000 m) and was travelling at 471 knots (872 km/h; 542 mph) true airspeed when it ceased all communications and the transponder signal was lost. The aircraft's last known position on 8 March at 01:21 local time (17:21 UTC, 7 March) was 6°55′15″N 103°34′43″E, corresponding to the navigational waypoint IGARI in the Gulf of Thailand, at which the aircraft was due to alter its course slightly eastward.[21] Military tracking shows that the aircraft descended as low as 12,000 feet (3,700 m) after taking a sharp turn toward the Strait of Malacca. The sharp turn seemed to be intentional as normally it would have taken two minutes for the aircraft to make such a turn, and during that time there was no emergency call.
The crew was expected to contact air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City as the aircraft passed into Vietnamese airspace just north of the point where contact was lost. The captain of another aircraft attempted to reach the crew of Flight 370 "just after 1:30 a.m." to relay Vietnamese Air Traffic Control's request for the crew to contact it; the captain said he was able to establish contact, and just heard "mumbling" and static.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) issued a media statement at 07:24, one hour after the scheduled arrival of the flight at Beijing, stating that contact with the flight had been lost by Malaysian ATC at 02:40. MAS stated that the government had initiated search and rescue operations.It later emerged that Subang Air Traffic Control had lost contact with the aircraft at 01:22 and notified Malaysia Airlines at 02:40. Neither the crew nor the aircraft's onboard communication systems relayed a distress signal, indications of bad weather, or technical problems before the aircraft vanished from radar screens. The last words that Malaysian air traffic controllers heard were those of the co-pilot saying, "All right, good night
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been lost in the southern Indian Ocean, the Malaysian prime minister has said, following analysis of data by British satellite operator Inmarsat. However, its precise whereabouts and the chain of events remain a mystery.
What do we know about the plane's disappearance?
00:41, 8 March: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Saturday, 8 March (16:41 GMT, 7 March), and was due to arrive in Beijing at 06:30 (22:30 GMT).
Malaysia Airlines says the plane lost contact less than an hour after takeoff. No distress signal or message was sent.
01:07: The plane sent its last ACARS transmission - a service that allows computers aboard the plane to "talk" to computers on the ground. Some time afterwards, it was silenced and the expected 01:37 transmission was not sent.
01:19: The co-pilot was heard to say "All right, good night" to Malaysian air traffic control.
A few minutes later, the plane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was shut down as the aircraft crossed from Malaysian air traffic control into Vietnamese airspace over the South China Sea.
01:21: The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said the plane failed to check in as scheduled with air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City.
02:15: Malaysian military radar plotted Flight MH370 at a point south of Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca, west of its last known location. Thai military radar logs also confirmed that the plane turned west and then north over the Andaman sea.
08:11: (00:11 GMT, 8 March) Seven hours after contact with air traffic control was lost, a satellite above the Indian Ocean picked up data from the plane in the form of an automatic "handshake" between the aircraft and a ground station.
This information, disclosed a week after the plane's disappearance, suggested the jet was in one of two flight corridors, one stretching north between Thailand and Kazakhstan, the other south between Indonesia and the southern Indian Ocean.
08:19: There is some evidence of a further "partial handshake" at this time between the plane and a ground station but experts are still working on analysing this data, the Malaysian transport minister said on 25 March.
09:15: (01:15 GMT) This would have been the next scheduled automatic contact between the ground station and the plane but there was no response from the aircraft.
What happened next?
The plane's planned route would have taken it north-eastwards, over Cambodia and Vietnam, and the initial search focused on the South China Sea, south of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula.
But evidence from a military radar, revealed later, suggested the plane had suddenly changed from its northerly course to head west. So the search, involving dozens of ships and planes, then switched to the sea west of Malaysia.
Further evidence revealed on Saturday 15 March by the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak suggested the jet was deliberately diverted by someone on board about an hour after takeoff.
After MH370's last communication with a satellite was disclosed, a week after the plane's disappearance, the search was expanded dramatically to nearly three million square miles, from Kazakhstan in the north to vast areas of the remote southern Indian Ocean.
Then, on 20 March, Australian search teams revealed they were investigating two objects spotted on satellite images in the southern Indian Ocean and sent long-range surveillance planes to the area, followed by further sightings. An Australian ship arrived in the area and further vessels are on their way.
At 1400 GMT on 24 March the Malaysian prime minister announced that following further analysis of satellite data it was beyond doubt that the plane had gone down in this part of the ocean.
This was based on Inmarsat and UK air accident investigators' analysis of the data relayed between the plane and ground station by satellite.
More potential debris was spotted by satellites but on 28 March the main search area was moved 1,100km (684 miles) to the north-east and closer to Australia, following further analysis of the speed of the plane and its maximum range.
Malaysian officials said that the debris could still be consistent with the new search area as ocean currents may have moved floating objects. However, no debris has yet been verified as being from the plane.
Who was on board?
Muhammad Razahan Zamani (bottom right), 24, and his wife Norli Akmar Hamid, 33, were on their honeymoon on the missing flight. The phone is being held by his stepsister, Arni Marlina
The 12 crew members were all Malaysian, led by pilots Captain Zaharie Ahmed Shah, 53 and 27-year-old co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid.
Police have searched their homes and a flight simulator has been taken from the captain's home and reassembled for examination at police headquarters.
It is now believed that co-pilot Hamid spoke the last words heard from the plane, "All right, good night" - but it it not clear whether this was before or after the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) had been deliberately switched off.
There were 227 passengers, including 153 Chinese and 38 Malaysians, according to the manifest
. Seven were children.
Other passengers came from Iran, the US, Canada, Indonesia, Australia, India, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and the Netherlands.
Two Iranian men were found to be travelling on false passports. But further investigation revealed 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29 were headed for Europe via Beijing, and had no apparent links to terrorist groups.
Among the Chinese nationals was a delegation of 19 prominent artists who had attended an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia Airlines said there were four passengers who checked in for the flight but did not show up at the airport.
The family members of those on board were informed by in person, by phone and by text message on 24 March that the plane had been lost.
