Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
9M-MRO, a Malaysia Airlines B777-200ER livery just after lifting off the runway
The missing aircraft pictured in December 2011
Disappearance
Date8 March 2014 (2014-03-08)
SummaryInconclusive, some debris found
SiteIndian Ocean, most likely southern
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 777-2H6ER[a]
OperatorMalaysia Airlines
IATA flight No.MH370
ICAO flight No.MAS370
Call signMALAYSIAN 370
Registration9M-MRO
Flight originKuala Lumpur International Airport, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
DestinationBeijing Capital International Airport, Beijing, China
Occupants239
Passengers227
Crew12
Fatalities239 (presumed)
Survivors0 (presumed)

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned destination, Beijing Capital International Airport in China.[1] The cause of its disappearance has not been determined. It is widely regarded as the greatest mystery in aviation history,[2][3][4] and remains the single deadliest case of aircraft disappearance.

The crew of the Boeing 777-200ER, registered as 9M-MRO, last communicated with air traffic control (ATC) around 38 minutes after takeoff when the flight was over the South China Sea. The aircraft was lost from ATC's secondary surveillance radar screens minutes later but was tracked by the Malaysian military's primary radar system for another hour, deviating westward from its planned flight path, crossing the Malay Peninsula and Andaman Sea. It left radar range 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia.

With all 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard presumed dead, the disappearance of Flight 370 was the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777, the deadliest of 2014, and the deadliest in Malaysia Airlines' history until it was surpassed in all three regards by Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down by Russian-backed forces while flying over Ukraine four months later on 17 July 2014.

The search for the missing aircraft became the most expensive search in the history of aviation. It focused initially on the South China Sea and Andaman Sea, before a novel analysis of the aircraft's automated communications with an Inmarsat satellite indicated that the plane had travelled far southward over the southern Indian Ocean. The lack of official information in the days immediately after the disappearance prompted fierce criticism from the Chinese public, particularly from relatives of the passengers, as most people on board Flight 370 were of Chinese origin. Several pieces of debris washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean during 2015 and 2016; many of these were confirmed to have originated from Flight 370.

After a three-year search across 120,000 km2 (46,000 sq mi) of ocean failed to locate the aircraft, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre heading the operation suspended its activities in January 2017. A second search launched in January 2018 by private contractor Ocean Infinity also ended without success after six months.

Relying mostly on the analysis of data from the Inmarsat satellite with which the aircraft last communicated, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) initially proposed that a hypoxia event was the most likely cause given the available evidence, although no consensus has been reached among investigators concerning this theory. At various stages of the investigation, possible hijacking scenarios were considered, including crew involvement, and suspicion of the airplane's cargo manifest; many disappearance theories regarding the flight have also been reported by the media.

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport's final report from July 2018 was inconclusive. It highlighted Malaysian ATC's fruitless attempts to communicate with the aircraft shortly after its disappearance. In the absence of a definitive cause of disappearance, air transport industry safety recommendations and regulations citing Flight 370 have been implemented to prevent a repetition of the circumstances associated with the loss. These include increased battery life on underwater locator beacons, lengthening of recording times on flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders, and new standards for aircraft position reporting over open ocean. Malaysia had supported 58% of the total cost, Australia 32%, and China 10%.


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  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference USAToday_2014-03-08 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "10 aviation Mysteries of Our Time". caaa.com.au. 8 August 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  3. ^ "'The greatest aviation mystery of all time': what really happened to flight MH370?". theguardian.com. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Flight MH370: can underwater sound signals solve aviation's greatest mystery?". theconversation.com. 10 June 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.