Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777-200ER, operating as MH370 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014. Although the initial part of the takeoff proceeded routinely, communication with air traffic control was lost in the 38th minute of the flight, and it subsequently disappeared from radar screens. Following this mysterious disappearance, the aircraft could not be found in any of the search efforts conducted over a 120,000 km2 ocean area. In this respect, the flight still holds the title of one of the most mysterious aviation incidents to date.
The Disappearance of the Flight
The Boeing 777-200ER with tail number 9M-MRO departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing at 00:41 local time. It first received clearance from the airport tower to climb to flight level 180 (18,000 feet - 5,500 m), and then from Kuala Lumpur Area Control Centre to climb to flight level 350 (35,000 feet - 10,700 m). The last transmission made by the aircraft was an automatic position data by the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) at 01:07. The last vocal communication with air traffic control occurred at 01:19, just as the aircraft was transitioning from Malaysian Airspace to Vietnam Airspace. The last sounds heard from Captain Zaharie were "Good night. Malaysian three seven zero." At 01:21, the aircraft's transponder was deactivated. With the deactivation of the transponder, the aircraft became blind to those on the ground. This was because key information for an aircraft, such as speed, altitude, and flight number, was transmitted to ground authorities via the transponder. Although flight information was lost on civilian radars, the Malaysian Military Radar was still able to track the aircraft intermittently. Immediately after disappearing, the aircraft first made a slight turn to the right, then a sharp turn to the left, and began flying towards the Malay Peninsula. Between 01:30 and 01:52, a civilian radar at Sultan Ismail Petra Airport detected an unidentified aircraft 4 times. The position data from these 4 detections matched the data from the Malaysian Military Radar. At 01:52, flight MH370 was observed by the Malaysian Military Radar passing just south of Penang Island. Data received from 02:01 to 02:03 indicated the aircraft was at Pulau Perak. The last position information received from the radar for the aircraft came at 02:22, from a point close to the limits of the Malaysian Military Radar's coverage area. At 02:40, air traffic control informed Malaysia Airlines that flight MH370 had disappeared. At 07:24 – approximately 1 hour after the aircraft's scheduled landing time – Malaysia Airlines announced to the world in a statement that flight MH370 had disappeared.
After the Disappearance
Shortly after the flight's disappearance, search operations began in Southeast Asia, where the aircraft was last seen. These search efforts yielded no results. One day after the flight's disappearance, Inmarsat, a British satellite telecommunications company, announced that data exchange between the aircraft and its satellites continued for some time after MH370 vanished, and began examining this data. The satellite communication system, which had been deactivated when the aircraft's ACARS system shut down, began operating again at 02:25 for an unknown reason. This allowed hourly data exchanges, known as "handshakes," to begin between the satellite and the aircraft. The first of these occurred at 02:25, when MH370 sent a request to log on to the satellite, and the satellite transitioned to an "active" status. After this point, 7 handshakes occurred between the aircraft and the satellite, once every hour. The 7th and final handshake also came at 08:19, along with the aircraft's request to log on to the satellite. After this handshake, the satellite attempted to establish contact with the aircraft three times at 09:15 but received no response from the aircraft. There were also two phone calls in the communication between the satellite and the aircraft, at 02:39 and 07:13, but neither call received an answer from the cockpit. With the emergence of this data, Inmarsat, Chinese and American aviation experts, and Malaysian authorities came together to form a group to analyze the data. This group used data such as time, speed, and position to determine 7 arcs that could form the aircraft's probable trajectory. With this data, search efforts were shifted around the 7th arc, which encompassed the aircraft's probable last known position. The 7th arc indicated that the aircraft had crashed into the Indian Ocean. Australia, with the support of China and Malaysia, agreed to lead the search efforts. Although operations started on March 17, 2014, and continued until January 17, 2017, the aircraft was not found. Nevertheless, during the operations, confirmed pieces belonging to the lost Boeing 777-200ER were found. This search operation became the most costly search operation in aviation history. On January 16, 2018, Malaysian authorities announced that search operations had resumed following an agreement with the American company Ocean Infinity. Ocean Infinity used 8 autonomous underwater vehicles in these operations and significantly expanded the search area. Despite all these efforts, the aircraft was again not found, and on May 29, 2018, it was announced that search operations were suspended. Following these developments, the Malaysian Ministry of Transport published its final report on the accident on July 31, 2018. The report stated that neither the aircraft nor its black boxes were found, and therefore, what happened to the aircraft could not be determined. After years of silence, on December 20, 2024, Malaysian authorities announced that a new search operation, again by Ocean Infinity, based on a "$70 million, no find, no fee" principle, had commenced. This search operation is still ongoing today.
