Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

The missing aircraft, 9M-MRO, pictured in 2011
Incident
Date	8 March 2014
Summary	Missing
Site	Southern Indian Ocean (presumed)
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 777-200ER
Operator	Malaysia Airlines
Registration	9M-MRO
Flight origin	Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Destination	Beijing Capital International Airport
Passengers	227
Crew	12

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport. On 8 March 2014, Subang Air Traffic Control outside Kuala Lumpur reported that controlled airspace had lost contact with the aircraft flying the route, a Boeing 777-200ER, at 01:20 MST, less than an hour after takeoff. Operated by Malaysia Airlines (MAS), the aircraft carried 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 14 nations.

A joint multi-national search and rescue effort begins, later reported as the largest in history, Worldwide search and recovery was initiated in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. On 15 March, investigators believed that the aircraft had first headed west back across the Malay Peninsula, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, Northern Thailand to Maldives then continued on a northern or southern track for approximately seven hours. The search area was later extended to include the Strait of Malacca, Andaman Sea, and eventually the Indian Ocean exclusively.

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. 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 has been confirmed as belonging to the missing aircraft. On 28 March, revised estimates of the flight's fuel consumption after losing radar contact caused a move of the search area to 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) north-east of the previous search area.

On 24 March, the Malaysian government confirmed analyses by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Inmarsat and concluded "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the aircraft had gone down in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors. As of 29 March, an international team has been investigating the loss of the flight in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) protocols.

Disappearance

Route: Kuala Lumpur – Beijing. Insert: initial search areas and known path through waypoints IGARI, VAMPI, and IGREX. Small red squares: radar contacts. Small circles: claimed spotting of debris.

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 06:30 local 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 at the navigational waypoint IGARI in the Gulf of Thailand, at which the aircraft was due to alter its course slightly eastward. 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 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 am" 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.

Timeline of disappearance

Elapsed (HH:MM)	Time		Event
	MYT	UTC
00:00	8 March	7 March	Take-off from KUL (Kuala Lumpur)
	00:41	16:41
00:20	01:01	17:01	Crew confirms altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000 m)
00:26	01:07	17:07	Last ACARS data transmission received; crew confirms altitude of 35,000 feet, a second time
00:38	01:19	17:19	Last Malaysian ATC voice contact
00:40	01:21	17:21	Last secondary radar (transponder) contact at 6°55′15″N 103°34′43″E
00:41	01:22	17:22	Transponder and ADS-B now off
00:49	01:30	17:30	Voice contact attempt by another aircraft, at request of Vietnam ATC; mumbling and radio static heard in reply
00:56	01:37	17:37	Missed expected half-hourly ACARS data transmission
01:30	02:11	18:11	First of seven automated hourly Classic Aero pings (handshakes) (since last ACARS transmission) via the Inmarsat-3 F1 satellite
01:34	02:15	18:15	Last primary radar contact by Malaysian military, 200 miles (320 km) NW of Penang
05:49	06:30	22:30	Missed scheduled arrival at PEK (Beijing)
06:43	07:24	23:24	Malaysia Airlines pronounces flight missing in statement released to media
07:30	08:11	8 March	Last successful automated hourly handshake with Inmarsat-3 F1
		00:11
07:38	08:19	00:19	Unscheduled, unexplained partial handshake transmitted by aircraft
08:34	09:15	01:15	Scheduled hourly ping attempt by Inmarsat goes unanswered by aircraft

Pings

On 11 March, New Scientist reported that, prior to the aircraft's disappearance, two Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) reports had been automatically issued to engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce's monitoring centre in the United Kingdom; and The Wall Street Journal, citing sources in the US government, asserted that Rolls-Royce had received an aircraft health report every thirty minutes for five hours, implying that the aircraft had remained aloft for four hours after its transponder went offline.

The following day, Hishamuddin Hussein, the acting Minister of Transport, refuted the details of The Wall Street Journal report stating that the final engine transmission was received at 01:07 MYT, prior to the flight's disappearance from secondary radar. The WSJ later amended its report and stated simply that the belief of continued flight was "based on analysis of signals sent by the Boeing 777's satellite-communication link... the link operated in a kind of standby mode and sought to establish contact with a satellite or satellites. These transmissions did not include data..."

Inmarsat said that "routine, automated signals were registered" on its network, and that analysis of "keep-alive message[s]" that continued to be sent after air traffic control first lost contact could help pinpoint the aircraft's location, which led The Independent to comment on 14 March that the aircraft could not have met with a sudden catastrophic occurrence, or all signals would have stopped simultaneously. There was a call for automated transponders after the attacks of 11 September 2001; however, no changes were made as aviation experts preferred flexible control, in case of malfunctions or electrical emergencies.

On 25 March, Hishamuddin revealed that Inmarsat had found evidence that the aircraft had attempted another handshake with the satellite at 00:19 UTC, eight minutes after the last hourly report. This "partial ping" initiated by the aircraft was unscheduled, not the result of any human interaction, and not yet understood.

Assumed loss

Messages of hope and prayer for MH370, at a bookstore in Malaysia

On 24 March, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said,

Using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort... Inmarsat and the AAIB have concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth. This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

Just before Najib spoke at 10 pm Malaysia Standard Time, Malaysia Airlines announced that Flight 370 was assumed lost with no survivors. It notified most of the families in person or via telephone, and some received the following SMS:

Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia's Prime Minister, we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng reacted sceptically to the conclusion by demanding "all the relevant information and evidence about the satellite data analysis", and said that the Malaysian government must "finish all the work including search and rescue." If the official assumption of no survivors holds, it would be the deadliest aviation incident in the Indian Ocean, the deadliest in the history of Malaysian Airlines (surpassing the 1977 hijacking and crash of Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 that killed all 100 passengers and crew), and the deadliest involving a Boeing 777, surpassing Asiana Airlines Flight 214.

British satellite company Inmarsat had provided officials (or its partner, SITA) with data on 11 March, three days after the aircraft disappeared, suggesting the aircraft was nowhere near the areas in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea being searched at that time; and may have diverted its course through a southern or northern corridor, information only publicly acknowledged and released by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on 15 March in a press conference. Criticism was also levelled at the delay of the search efforts. Explaining why information about satellite signals had not been made available earlier, Malaysia Airlines said that the raw satellite signals needed to be verified and analysed "so that their significance could be properly understood" before it could publicly confirm their existence. Acting Transport Minister of Malaysia Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysian and US investigators had immediately discussed the Inmarsat data upon receiving it on 12 March, and on two occasions, both groups agreed that it needed further processing and sent the data to the US twice for this purpose. Their analysis was completed on 14 March, by then, the AAIB independently arrived at the same conclusion.

On 29 March, 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, they would set up an international team to investigate the loss of the flight.

On 30 March, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the appointment of retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston to head the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) to co-ordinate the search effort and closely co-operate with Malaysia, whose government is responsible under international law.

Search

Hypothesised routes

Search for plane. Pink circle: Range of plane based on fuel (5,300 km.). Ping corridors: possible locations (in red) of plane at last ping to Inmarsat and possible last location (lighter red) based on residual fuel. Search areas: 1) 8–20 March, 2) 20–27 March, 3) 28 March.

On 11 March, it was reported that military radar indicated the aircraft flight path had been reprogrammed turned west and continued flying for 70 minutes before disappearing off the Malaysian radar near Pulau Perak, and that it was tracked flying at a lower altitude across Malaysia to the Malacca Strait. This location was approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) from its last contact with civilian radar. The next day, the Royal Malaysian Air Force chief denied the report. A Vietnamese transport minister said Malaysia was informed on the day that they "noticed the flight turned back west but Malaysia did not respond."

US experts, assigned to assist with the investigation in a low-key manner consistent with conventions of responsibilities, analysed the radar data and subsequently reported that the radar data did indeed indicate that the aircraft had headed west back across the Malay Peninsula, with Reuters and The New York Times saying that the route changes suggested that the aircraft remained under a trained pilot's control. The New York Times also said the aircraft experienced significant changes in altitude.

Although Bloomberg News said that analysis of the last satellite "ping" received suggested a last known location approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) west of Perth, Western Australia, the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on 15 March said that the last signal, received at 08:11 Malaysian time, might have originated from as far north as Kazakhstan. Najib explained that the signals could not be more precisely located than to one of two possible loci: a northern locus stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern locus stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. Many of the countries on a possible northerly flight route – China, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and India – denied the aircraft could have entered their country's airspace, because military radar would have detected it.

Although it was later confirmed that the last ACARS transmission showed nothing unusual and a normal routing all the way to Beijing, The New York Times reported "senior American officials" saying on 17 March that the scheduled flight path was pre-programmed to unspecified western coordinates through the flight management system before the ACARS stopped functioning, and a new waypoint "far off the path to Beijing" was added. Such a reprogramming would have resulted in a banked turn at a comfortable angle of around 20 degrees that would not have caused undue concern for passengers. The sudden cessation of all on-board communication led to suppositions that the aircraft's disappearance may have been due to foul play.

Hypothesised locations

As the available data analyses of the flight were refined, the foci of the search operations changed sequentially between three distinct areas. None of the debris recovered so far, however, has been connected to Flight 370.

Search area 1

An admiral of the Vietnamese navy reported that radar contact with the aircraft was last made over the Gulf of Thailand. Oil slicks detected off the coast of Vietnam on 8 and 9 March later tested negative for aviation fuel. Alleged discovery of debris about 80 km (50 mi) south of Thổ Chu Island on 9 March was also found to be not from an aircraft. Searches following a Chinese website's satellite images, taken on 9 March, showing three floating objects measuring up to 24 by 22 metres (79 ft × 72 ft) at 6.7°N 105.63°E / 6.7; 105.63 (Three floating objects, 9 March) also turned up blank; Vietnamese officials said the area had been "searched thoroughly".

The Royal Thai Navy shifted its focus in the search away from the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea at the request of its Malaysian counterpart, which was investigating the possibility that the aircraft had turned around and could have gone down in the Andaman Sea, near Thailand's border. The chief of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Rodzali Daud, claimed that military recordings of radar signals did not exclude the possibility of the aircraft turning back on its flight path. The search radius was increased from the original 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) from its last known position, south of Thổ Chu Island, to 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi), and the area being examined then extended to the Strait of Malacca along the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, with waters both to the east of Malaysia in the Gulf of Thailand, and in the Strait of Malacca along Malaysia's west coast, being searched.

On 12 March, authorities also began to search the Andaman Sea, northwest of the Strait of Malacca, and the Malaysian government requested help from India to search in the area.

Search area 2

On 13 March, the White House Press Secretary said "an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean based on some new information" and a senior official at The Pentagon told ABC News: "We have an indication the plane went down in the Indian Ocean." On 17 March, Australia agreed to lead the search in the southern locus from Sumatra to the southern Indian Ocean. The search would be coordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), with an area of 600,000 km² (230,000 sq mi) between Australia and the Kerguelen Islands lying more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) Southwest of Perth, to be searched by ships and aircraft of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. This area, which Australian PM Tony Abbott described as "as close to nowhere as it's possible to be", is renowned for its strong winds, inhospitable climate, hostile seas, and deep ocean floors. On 18 March, the search of the area began with a single Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion aircraft. On 19 March, the search capacity was ramped up to three aircraft and three merchant ships, being tasked to transit through a slightly revised search area of 305,000 square kilometres (118,000 sq mi) about 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) South-west of Perth.

Search efforts intensified on 20 March, with five aircraft and a fourth merchant ship searching a further narrowed down area after large pieces of possible debris had been photographed in this area four days earlier by an Australian satellite. Australian, US, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea all tasked military and civilian assets to the area. China published satellite images on 22 March that showed large debris about 120 km (75 mi) south west of the previous sighting; On 26 March, images from a French satellite indicated 122 floating objects in the southern Indian Ocean Thai satellite images published on 27 March showed about 300 floating objects about 200 km (120 mi) from the French satellite's target area. The abundant finds, none yet confirmed to be from the flight, brought the realisation of the prior lack of surveillance over the area, and the vast amounts of debris littering the oceans.

Search area 3

File:Black-box-finder WEB.svg

Towed pinger locator operating principles

On 28 March the search area was shifted 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) to the north east to a 319,000-square-kilometre (123,000 sq mi) area 1,850 kilometres (1,150 mi) west of Perth, based on further analysis of the flight's radar track before contact was lost and on revised speed and range estimates. The new area is less likely to be affected by adverse weather conditions. On 30 March four large orange-coloured objects found by searching aircraft turned out to be fishing equipment.

On 2 April, Royal Navy submarine HMS Tireless and survey vessel HMS Echo arrived in the area and began searching for the aircraft's underwater locator beacons fitted to the "black box" flight recorders, the batteries of which are expected to expire around 7 April.

ADV Ocean Shield, fitted with the TPL-25 towed pinger locator began searching on 4 April. Ocean Shield can search up to 50 square miles (130 km²) per day with the TPL-25 and is also carrying a US Navy Bluefin-21 unmanned underwater vehicle for use in the search.

International involvement

Crew members on board a P-8A Poseidon manning terminals while assisting in search and rescue operations on 16 March 2014

Crew on USS Kidd searching in the Andaman Sea on 17 March 2014

Chinese PLAAF Ilyushin Il-76 arriving in Australia on 21 March 2014 to assist in the search

In response to the incident, the Malaysian government mobilised its civil aviation department, air force, navy, and Maritime Enforcement Agency; and requested international assistance under Five Power Defence Arrangements provisions and from neighbouring states. Various nations mounted a search and rescue mission in the region's waters. Within two days, the countries had already dispatched more than 34 aircraft and 40 ships to the area. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission analysed information from its network of infrasound detection stations, but failed to find any sounds made by Flight 370.

On 11 March, the China Meteorological Administration activated the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, a 15 member organisation whose purpose is to "...provide a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural or man-made disasters," the first time the charitable and humanitarian redeployment of the assorted corporate, national space agency, and international satellite assets under its aegis had been used to search for an airliner.

Another 11 countries joined the search efforts by 17 March, after more assistance was requested by Malaysia, bringing the total to 26. While not participating in the search itself, Sri Lanka gave permission for search aircraft to use its airspace. Assets deployed by Malaysia included military fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and vessels from the navy and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. A co-ordination centre at the National Disaster Control Centre (NDCC) in Pulau Meranti, Cyberjaya was established.

Britain is providing technical assistance from the Ministry of Defence, the Hydrographic Office, Department for Transport and the Met Office; and personnel from the RAF.

Other nations provided the following assets:

• Australia: air force Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft; navy ships HMAS Success and ADV Ocean Shield, and four long-range civilian jets.
• Bangladesh: navy frigates BNS Bangabandhu and BNS Umar Farooq; navy Dornier Do 228 maritime patrol aircraft.
• Brunei: Darussalam-class offshore patrol vessel.
• Cambodia: Harbin Z-9 helicopters and P46-type navy ships.
• China (PRC): Type 053H3 frigate Mianyang, marine police vessel No. 3411, Type 052C destroyer Haikou, Type 071 amphibious transport dock JinggangShan, KunlunShan, patrol ship Haixun 31, Type 925 submarine support ship Yongxingdao, research vessel Xuelong, rescue ship Haixun 01, and merchant ships, rescue vessel Nanhaijiu 101 and Type 903 replenishment ship Qiandaohu. Several of its military satellites were retasked, and two of its Ilyushin Il-76s were deployed to RAAF Base Pearce near Perth to assist the search in the southern Indian Ocean.
• France: a team from the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA). The satellites Spot-5, Spot-6, Pleiades 1A and 1B, whose data are analysed by the teams of the Minister of Defence.
• India: surface and airborne assets from the Andaman and Nicobar Command and Eastern Naval Command: navy ships INS Satpura, INS Sahyadri, INS Saryu, INS Batti Malv, INS Kesari and INS Kumbhir; coast guard vessels ICGS Kanaklata Baruah, ICGS Bhikaji Cama and ICGS Sagar; navy Boeing P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft; navy and coast guard Dornier Do 228s; air force Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Mil Mi-17. Rukmini naval satellite.
• Indonesia: corvette KRI Sutanto, patrol boat KRI Siribua and fast patrol vessels KRI Matacora, KRI Tarihu and KRI Krait; IPTN NC-212 maritime patrol aircraft.
• Japan: naval defence force Lockheed P-3 Orion and air defence force C-130 Hercules aircraft; coast guard Gulfstream V; and a disaster relief team.
• Myanmar: naval vessels in Gulf of Martaban and the Bay of Bengal.
• New Zealand: air force P-3 surveillance Orion.
• Norway: a Norwegian RoRo merchant ship, the Höegh St. Petersburg.
• Philippines: navy ships BRP Gregorio del Pilar, BRP Emilio Jacinto and BRP Apolinario Mabini; air force Fokker F27 and navy Britten-Norman Defender aircraft; and navy AgustaWestland AW109 helicopter. A Hamilton-class cutter vessel and a C-130 Hercules on standby.
• Russia: Resurs-P No.1 satellite.
• Singapore: in South China Sea/Malacca Strait: air force C-130 Hercules; navy Formidable-class frigate with one Sikorsky S-70B Seahawk helicopter; a submarine rescue ship with divers; Victory-class corvette; an air force Fokker 50 maritime patrol aircraft. In the Indian Ocean, all previously-deployed ships and aircraft were stood down and instead the armed forces' Information Fusion Centre was activated.
• South Korea: navy P-3 Orion and air force C-130 Hercules aircraft.
• Taiwan (ROC): air force C-130 Hercules; ROCS Tian Dan and a La Fayette-class frigate; two coast guard patrol vessels.
• Thailand: Dornier Do 228, AgustaWestland Super Lynx helicopter and patrol ship HTMS Pattani. Other ships on standby.
• United Arab Emirates: two military search and rescue aircraft.
• United Kingdom: a team of Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigators, hydrographic survey ship HMS Echo, and nuclear submarine HMS Tireless.
• United States: Towed Pinger Locator 25, navy P-3 Orion and Boeing P-8 aircraft; Navy ships USS Kidd and USS Pinckney with Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopters; a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) team.
• Vietnam: Antonov An-26, de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, Mil Mi-171, and ships from the navy, coast guard, fisheries control, and Maritime Search & Rescue Coordination Centre.

Information sharing

Although Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is also the country's Defence Minister, denied the existence of problems between the participating countries, academics said that because of regional conflicts, there were genuine trust issues involved in co-operation and sharing intelligence, and that these were hampering the search. International relations experts said entrenched rivalries over sovereignty, security, intelligence, and national interests made meaningful multilateral co-operation very difficult. A Chinese academic made the observation that the parties were searching independently, thus it was not a multilateral search effort.

Malaysia had initially declined to release raw data from its military radar, deeming the information "too sensitive", but later acceded. Defence experts say that giving others access to radar information may be sensitive on a military level. As an example: "The rate at which they can take the picture can also reveal how good the radar system is." One suggested that some countries may already have had radar data on the aircraft and were reluctant to share any information that could potentially reveal their defence capabilities and compromise their own security. Similarly, submarines patrolling the South China Sea might have information in the event of a water impact, and sharing such information could reveal the subs' locations and listening capabilities. However, The Guardian noted the Vietnamese permission given for Chinese aircraft to overfly its airspace as a positive sign of co-operation.

Satellite imagery is also being made available by Tomnod for the public to help with the search.

Analysis of satellite communication

The datalink for Malaysia Airline's avionics communications is supplied by SITA, which contracted with Inmarsat to provide a satellite communication link using Inmarsat's Classic Aero service. The aircraft's satellite communication (SATCOM) system is used to transmit messages from the cockpit as well as automated messages from on-board systems using the ACARS communications protocol, but may also be used to transmit FANS & ATN messages and provide voice, fax and data links using other protocols. The SATCOM signals from the aircraft are picked up by Inmarsat's constellation of satellites and relayed to ground stations. In the absence of a signal from a terminal, the ground station will transmit hourly 'log on/log off' messages – informally referred to as a 'ping' – to the terminal; an active terminal automatically responds. The entire process is referred to as a 'handshake'. After ACARS equipment on the aircraft was disabled, the SATCOM transceiver aboard Flight 370 completed six handshakes; the final complete handshake occurring at 00:11 UTC on 8 March (8:11 MYT).

Although the ACARS system on Flight 370 was disabled at 01:21 MYT (17:21 UTC, 7 March), the SATCOM terminal remained operable. On 8 March, Inmarsat provided basic flight data relating to Flight 370 to SITA, who relayed information to Malaysia Airlines and investigators. On 9–10 March, Inmarsat engineers noted that the ground station log recorded pings from the aircraft for several hours after contact was lost with air traffic control. An analysis of the time difference between the transmission of the ping and the aircraft's response allowed Inmarsat to determine the aircraft's distance from the satellite, resulting in the plotting of two arcs—referred to as the 'Northern Corridor' and 'Southern Corridor' where the aircraft may have been located at the time of its last complete handshake at 00:11 UTC.

Inmarsat conducted further analysis on the signals received during the handshakes, focusing on the frequency shift of the signal emitted from the aircraft compared with the actual frequency received, known as the burst frequency offset, using a baseline of earlier system data for the aircraft, satellite, and ground station. The burst frequency offset, caused by the Doppler effect, varies based on the aircraft's speed and whether it is moving towards or away from the satellite. Using an "innovative technique" that has "never before [been] used in an investigation of this sort", the team determined they could also use the burst frequency offset to determine the aircraft's speed and position along the identified arcs. Inmarsat cross-checked their methodology to known flight data from six Boeing 777 aircraft flying in various directions on the same day, and found a good match. Applying the technique to the handshake signals from Flight 370 gave results that correlated strongly with the expected and actual measurements of a southern trajectory over the Indian Ocean, but poorly with a northern trajectory. Further revised calculations to account for movements of the satellite relative to the earth, allowed the northern corridor to be ruled out completely. This analysis was passed on to Malaysian authorities on 23 March. At 10 pm local time the next day, Prime Minister Najib cited this development to conclude that "Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

In addition to the six completed handshakes between Flight 370 and the ground station after ACARS stopped sending messages, there is "evidence of a partial handshake" at 00:19 UTC which was not immediately well understood and is subject to further investigation. Since the aircraft did not respond to a ping at 01:15 UTC, it was concluded that at some point between 00:11 UTC and 01:15 UTC, the aircraft lost the ability to communicate with the ground station, which Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation noted was "consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft". Of note, the SATCOM terminal on an aircraft requires power from the aircraft to operate.

Malaysian investigators set up an international working group, consisting of various agencies with experience in aircraft performance and satellite communications, to further analyse the signals between Flight 370 and the ground station, especially the signal at 00:19 UTC. These included representatives from the UK's Inmarsat, AAIB and Rolls-Royce; China's Civil Aviation Administration and Aircraft Accident Investigation Department; the US NTSB and FAA, and Malaysian authorities.

Aircraft

Flightdeck of 9M-MRO in 2004.

Flight 370 was operated with a Boeing 777-2H6ER, serial number 28420, registration 9M-MRO. The 404th Boeing 777 produced, it first flew on 14 May 2002, and was delivered new to Malaysia Airlines on 31 May 2002. The aircraft was configured to carry 282 passengers – 35 in business class and 247 in economy. 9M-MRO had accumulated 53,460 hours and 7,525 cycles in service, and had not previously been involved in any major incidents, though a minor incident while taxiing at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in August 2012 resulted in a broken wingtip. Its last maintenance 'A' check was carried out on 23 February 2014.

The Boeing 777, introduced in 1994, is generally regarded by aviation experts as having an "almost flawless" safety record, one of the best of any commercial aircraft. Since its first commercial flight in June 1995, there have been only three other serious accidents involving hull-loss: British Airways Flight 38 in 2008; a cockpit fire in a parked Egyptair 777-200 at Cairo International Airport in 2011; and Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in 2013, in which three people died.

Passengers and crew

People on board by nationality

Nationality	No.
Australia	6
Canada	2
China	152
France	4
Hong Kong	1
India	5
Indonesia	7
Iran	2
Malaysia	50
Netherlands	1
New Zealand	2
Russia	1
Taiwan	1
Ukraine	2
United States	3
Total	239

Malaysia Airlines released the names and nationalities of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members, based on the flight manifest, later modified to include two Iranian passengers travelling on stolen passports.

Passengers

Two-thirds of the 227 passengers were Chinese citizens, including a group of 19 artists with six family members and four staff returning from a calligraphy exhibition of their work in Kuala Lumpur; 38 passengers were Malaysian. The remaining passengers were from 13 different countries. Of the total, 20 were employees of Freescale Semiconductor, a company based in Austin, Texas – 12 of whom were from Malaysia and 8 from China. One passenger who worked as a flight engineer for a Swiss jet charter company was briefly suspected as potential hijacker because he was thought to have the relevant skill set.

Under a 2007 agreement with Malaysia Airlines, Tzu Chi – an international Buddhist organisation – immediately sent specially-trained teams to Beijing and Malaysia to give emotional support to passengers' families. The airline also sent its own team of caregivers and volunteers and agreed to bear the expenses of bringing family members of the passengers to Kuala Lumpur and providing them with accommodation, medical care, and counselling. Altogether, 115 family members of the Chinese passengers flew to Kuala Lumpur. Some other family members chose to remain in China, fearing they would feel too isolated in Malaysia. The airline's offer of an ex gratia condolence payment of US$5,000 to the family of each passenger was initially rejected; the amounts were handed out to relatives on 12 March. It was also reported that Malaysian relatives only received $2,000.

Crew

All the crew members were Malaysian citizens. The flight's captain was 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah from Penang; he joined MAS in 1981 and had 18,365 hours of flying experience. Zaharie was also an examiner qualified to conduct simulator tests for pilots.

The first officer was 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, an employee of MAS since 2007, with 2,763 flying hours. Fariq was transitioning to the Boeing 777-200 after having completed his simulator training. He had previously flown the 777 as part of supervised training but this flight was his first as a fully fledged 777 copilot.

Timeline of events

Date (UTC)	Category	Event
7 March	Media	Malaysia Airlines confirms it lost contact with Flight 370 at 18:40 UTC (02:40 MYT, 8 March), later corrected to 17:30 UTC (01:30 MYT)
8 March	Search	An international search and rescue mission mobilised focusing on South China Sea
	Media	The Malaysia Airlines has released passenger manifest of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
	Media	Two men from Austria and Italy, listed among the passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 were not in fact on board, the officials in both European countries said they had had his passport stolen.
9 March	Search	The search area expanded as the military radar indicates aircraft might have turned back west from its flight plan and flight path programmed before disappearing.
	Investigation	The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) confirms at least two stolen passports used by two passengers are found to have been travelling on stolen passports by passengers on missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370 were registered in its databases.
10 March	Search	Ten Chinese satellites are now deployed in the search.
	Search	Oil slicks on the surface of the South China Sea test negative for jet fuel
	Media	Malaysia Airlines announces it will give US$5,000 to the relatives of each passenger
11 March	Investigation	INTERPOL says that two false identities are not linked to the disappearance
	Media	China activates the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters
12 March	Search	Chinese satellite images of possible debris from Flight 370 in the South China Sea at 6.7°N 105.63°E / 6.7; 105.63 (Possible debris, 12 March) released, but surface search finds no wreckage
	Search	Malaysian government receives Inmarsat info that Flight 370 pinged for hours after ACARS went off-line
	Media	Chinese government criticises Malaysia for inadequate answers regarding Flight 370
13 March	Search	US hints search should be expanded to the Indian Ocean
14 March	Investigation	Investigation concludes that Flight 370 was still under the control of somebody after it lost contact with ground control
	Media	MAS retires the MH370/MH371 flight number pair
15 March	Search	Malaysia announces last satellite transmission from Flight 370 refocuses search along two loci – north and south. Thailand ends its fruitless search operation in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand.
	Investigation	Malaysian police search the homes of both of the aircraft's pilots
	CTBTO stations	CTBTO's acoustic and seismic signals analysts have not yet found clues about the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 as they looked at seismic shocks and sound waves that CTBTO monitoring stations are recording around the world.
16 March	Search	The number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation reaches 25. India ends its fruitless search operation in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.
17 March	Search	Search area reported by Malaysian authorities to be 2,000,000 square miles (5,200,000 km2), as a belt beneath the last possible arc position stretching from Kazakhstan over Indonesia to the southern part of the Indian Ocean. Australia pledges to lead a search from Sumatra to the southern Indian Ocean.
18 March	Search	China starts a search operation in its own territory. Australia still conducting an aerial search with one aircraft through waters West and North of Cocos Islands and Christmas Island (close to Indonesia). Australia also conducting its first aerial search of the southern Indian Ocean with a single Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion aircraft, searching more than 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 sq mi) of the Indian sea – roughly 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) South-west of Perth.
19 March	Investigation	FBI works to restore logfiles deleted from the flight simulator in the captain's home.
	Search	Australia ramps up its aerial search of the southern Indian Ocean with a total of three aircraft and three merchant ships, transiting through a slightly revised search area of 305,000 square kilometres (118,000 sq mi) about 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) South-west of Perth.
20 March	Search	Five aircraft and a fourth merchant ship are dispatched to locate two objects seen by an Australian satellite on 16 March, in the southern Indian Ocean at 44°03′02″S 91°13′27″E.
21 March	Search	Search focuses on an area 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) southwest of Perth, Western Australia
22 March	Search	A Chinese satellite image taken on 18 March shows a possible object measuring 22.5 by 13 metres (74 by 43 ft) at 44°57′30″S 90°13′40″E, approximately 3,170 kilometres (1,970 mi) west of Perth and 120 kilometres (75 mi) from the earlier sighting, but did not confirm the object's nature.
24 March	Search	An Australian search aircraft spots two objects at sea, 1,550 miles (2,490 km) southwest of Perth.
	Media	The Prime Minister of Malaysia announces that Flight 370 is assumed to have gone down in the southern Indian Ocean, and Malaysia Airlines states to families that it assumes "beyond reasonable doubt" there are no survivors.
25 March	Search	The search area is narrowed to the southern tip of the southern search corridor; the northern search corridor and the northern half of the southern search area are definitively ruled out.
26 March	Search	French satellite images, captured on 23 March by Airbus Defence and Space, show 122 possible pieces of debris, between 1 and 23 meters long, within a 76-by-78-kilometre (47 by 48 mi) area of the southern Indian Ocean at 44°41′24″S 90°25′19.20″E, 44°41′38.45″S 90°29′31.20″E and 44°40′10.20″S 90°36′25.20″E.
27 March	Search	The search area narrows to roughly 76,000 square kilometres (29,000 sq mi). Thai satellite images, captured on 24 March by Thaichote, show 300 floating objects ranging between 2 m and 15 m, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of the area depicted in the previous French images. Japanese satellite images, captured on 26 March, show 10 squared floating objects, also about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of the area depicted in the French images. Five ships from Australia and China are actively engaged.
28 March	Search	Search shifts to a new 319,000-square-kilometre (123,000 sq mi) area 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) northeast of the previous search area.
2 April	Search	Royal Navy survey ship HMS Echo and nuclear submarine HMS Tireless arrive at the search area and begin searching for the "Black Box" flight recorders.
4 April	Search	Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield with a towed pinger locator from the USA begins underwater search for the "Black Boxes".

Investigation

International participation

On 8 March, although formal (ICAO-sanctioned) investigation had not yet started, Boeing announced that it was assembling a team of experts to provide technical assistance to investigators, in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) protocols. Equally, the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) it was sending its own team of investigators with technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had already deployed technical experts and agents to investigate the disappearance. A senior US law enforcement official clarified that FBI agents had not been sent to Malaysia. By 17 March the investigation was also being assisted by Interpol and other relevant international law enforcement authorities according to the Malaysian government.

Possible passenger involvement

Two men identified on the manifest, an Austrian and an Italian, had reported their passports stolen in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Interpol stated that both passports were listed on its database of lost and stolen passports, and that no check had been made against its database. Malaysia's Home Minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, criticised his country's immigration officials for failing to stop the passengers travelling on the stolen European passports. The two one-way tickets purchased for the holders of the stolen passports were booked through China Southern Airlines. It was reported that an Iranian had ordered the cheapest tickets to Europe via telephone in Bangkok, Thailand. The tickets were paid for in cash. The two passengers were later identified as Iranian men, one aged 19 and the other 29, who had entered Malaysia on 28 February using valid Iranian passports. The head of Interpol said the organisation was "inclined to conclude that it was not a terrorist incident". The two men were believed to be asylum seekers. United States and Malaysian officials were reviewing the backgrounds of every passenger named on the manifest. On 18 March the Chinese government announced that it had checked all of the Chinese citizens on the aircraft and ruled out the possibility that any were potential hijackers.

Crew and cargo

Police searched the homes of the pilot and co-pilot, on suspicion that those in the cockpit had been responsible for the aircraft's disappearance. However, no evidence had emerged to support this theory. After the FBI reconstructed the deleted data from the pilot's home computer, the Malaysian government spokesman indicated that "nothing sinister" had been found on it.

MAS has not disclosed its cargo manifest, as Malaysian police are conducting their own investigations. On 17 March, Malaysia Airlines chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, indicated only that the aircraft was carrying 3 to 4 tonnes/tons of mangosteens and said that nothing it transported was dangerous. Three days later, he also confirmed that potentially flammable batteries, identified as lithium-ion, were on board, adding that all cargo was "packed as recommended by the ICAO", checked several times, and deemed to meet regulations.

On 2 April Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysia's Police Inspector-General, said that as part of its ongoing criminal investigation, more than 170 interviews had been conducted, including with family members of the pilots and crew. Khalid said that the provenance and destination of all cargo, including mangosteens and in-flight meals, were being investigated to rule out sabotage as a cause.

Criticism and response

Public communication from Malaysian officials regarding the loss of the flight was initially beset with confusion. The New York Times noted that the Malaysian government and the airline released imprecise, incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate information, with civilian officials sometimes contradicting military leaders. Malaysian officials were also criticised after the persistent release of contradictory information, most notably regarding the last point and time of contact with the aircraft.

Vietnam temporarily scaled back its search operations after the country's Deputy Transport Minister cited a lack of communication from Malaysian officials despite requests for more information. China, through the official Xinhua News Agency, said that the Malaysian government ought to take charge and conduct the operation with greater transparency, echoed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry days later.

Questions and criticisms were raised by air force experts and the Malaysian opposition about the current state of Malaysia's air force and radar capabilities. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said it was impossible and unacceptable that the country's advanced British radar system and military readiness had not been triggered by such a diverted flight.

On 14 March, Malaysia Airlines retired the MH370/MH371 flight number pair for the Kuala Lumpur–Beijing–Kuala Lumpur route, replacing them with MH318 and MH319 respectively.

On 25 March, Chinese president Xi Jinping said he was sending a special envoy to Kuala Lumpur to consult with the Malaysian government over the missing aircraft. The same day, around two hundred family members of the Chinese passengers protested outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing. Relatives who had arrived in KL after the announcement continued with their protesting, accusing Malaysia of hiding the truth and harbouring the murderer. They also wanted an apology for the Malaysian government's poor initial handling of the disaster and their "premature" conclusion of loss, drawn without physical evidence. An op-ed for China Daily said that Malaysia was not wholly to be blamed for its poor handling of such a "bizarre and unprecedented crisis", and appealed to Chinese people not to allow emotions to prevail over evidence and rationality. The Chinese ambassador to Malaysia rebuked the "radical and irresponsible opinions" of the Chinese relatives, and said that they "[did] not represent the views of Chinese people and the Chinese government". The ambassador also strongly criticised Western media for having "published false news, stoked conflict and even spread rumours" to the detriment of relatives and of Sino-Malaysian relations.UK News Tabloid Daily Mail were accused of manufacturing an interview with family members of the pilots.

See also

• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 conspiracy theories

External links

• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network

• Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Updates and Resources
• Updates regarding MH370 from Malaysia Airlines
• DCA Official Newsroom (MH370) – Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia
• Meteorological and oceanographic maps and charts relevant to Flight 370
• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Timeline