Missing MH370 plane: What we know about flight that disappeared nearly 12 years ago
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A card featuring pictures of the missing MH370 flight's cabin crew with wishes from their relatives, at a remembrance event just outside Kuala Lumpur in 2015.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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KUALA LUMPUR – The disappearance nearly 12 years ago of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people on board remains one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.
The Boeing 777 went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
More than 150 Chinese passengers and 50 Malaysians were on the flight, as well as citizens of France, Australia, Indonesia, India, the United States, Ukraine and Canada, among others.
Satellite data analysis showed the plane likely crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, off the coast of Western Australia. However, two major searches failed to come up with any significant findings.
A new search for the missing aircraft
What is known
The last transmission from the plane was about 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off with “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero”, as the plane entered Vietnamese airspace.
Shortly thereafter, its transponder was turned off, which meant it could not be easily tracked.
Military radar showed the plane left its flight path to fly back over northern Malaysia and Penang Island, and then out into the Andaman Sea towards the tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
It turned south and all contact was lost.
Underwater searches
Malaysia, Australia and China launched an underwater search in a 120,000 sq km area in the southern Indian Ocean, based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane.
The search, which cost about A$200 million (S$171 million), was called off after two years in January 2017, with no traces of the plane found.
In 2018, Malaysia accepted a “no cure, no fee” offer from US exploration company Ocean Infinity for a three-month search, meaning the company would get paid only if it found the plane.
That search covered 112,000 sq km north of the original target area and also proved fruitless, ending in May 2018.
Debris
More than 30 pieces of suspected aircraft debris have been collected along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean, but only three wing fragments were confirmed to be from MH370.
Most of the debris was used in drift pattern analysis in the hope of narrowing down the aircraft’s possible location.
Investigation report
A 495-page report into MH370’s disappearance, published in July 2018, said the Boeing 777’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course, but investigators could not determine who was responsible.
The report highlighted mistakes made by the Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City air traffic control centres and issued recommendations to avoid a repeat incident.
Investigators stopped short of offering any conclusions about what happened to MH370, saying that depended on finding the plane’s wreckage.
Conspiracy theories
The inability to locate MH370’s crash site has fuelled numerous conspiracy theories, from mechanical error to a remote-controlled crash to more bizarre explanations like an alien abduction or a Russian plot.
In recent years, some aviation experts have said the most likely explanation was that the plane was deliberately taken off course by an experienced pilot.
But investigators have said there was nothing suspicious in the background, financial affairs, training and mental health of both captain and co-pilot.
Search resumption
Malaysia's government in December 2024 announced it would resume the search for the wreckage following a new proposal from Ocean Infinity, which would receive US$70 million if substantive wreckage is found.
The search started in March but was suspended after a few weeks owing to bad weather.
The new search starting on Dec 30 will be in accordance with the same terms and conditions agreed between Malaysia and Ocean Infinity in 2024.
It will be conducted in a 15,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean.
The precise location has not been given.
Ocean Infinity has confirmed it would recommence seabed operations for 55 days, conducted intermittently, Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said. It added that the resumed search would be in “a targeted area assessed to have the highest probability of locating the aircraft”. REUTERS
