When you buy through link on our web site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it act upon .
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was a rider flying that left Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8 , 2014 , and disappeared 94 second later en route to Beijing Capital International Airport . The fade launched an outside search endeavour — some say the tumid ever — in an ever - growing area over the SouthChinaSea , Gulf of Thailand and Indian Ocean . about three geezerhood later , the destiny of the aircraft is still unknown , and the search has been called off .
late report :
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 lands at Los Angeles International Airport in February 2013.
3 - Year Search Ends for Lost Malaysia Flight 370
Infographic :
How the Bluefin-21 Searches For Flight 370 Wreckage on the Ocean Floor
More than two weeks after its strange disappearance, Malaysian officials announced they believe Flight 370 crashed into the sea. (See full infographic)
Passengers and crew
Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. local time express 227 passengers and 12 crewmembers . multitude from 14 land were on board ; most of the passengers — 153 — were Chinese citizens ; all of the crewmembers were Malaysian . Three Americans were on the trajectory . Other rider were from Australia ( 6 ) , Canada ( 2 ) , France ( 4 ) , Hong Kong ( 1 ) , India ( 5 ) , Indonesia ( 7 ) , Iran ( 2 ) , the Netherlands ( 1 ) , Russia ( 1 ) , Taiwan ( 1 ) andUkraine(2 ) .
The manifest let go by Malaysia Airlines included an Austrian and an Italian . However , the men have since been identified as Iranian nationals who get on the trajectory using stolen passport . Investigators at first thought the human beings may have been terrorists , but now say they were search asylum .
The trajectory ’s pilot was Capt . Zaharie Ahmad Shah , 53 , who was carry in northern Malaysian state of Penang and was a grandfather . He had more than 18,000 hours of flight experience . The co - pilot was Fariq Abdul Hamid , 27 , who had 2,763 trajectory hr . The Associated Press reported that he was engaged and was planning his hymeneals .
The aircraft
Flight 370 took off in a Boeing 777 - 2H6ER . The code " H6 " is Boeing ’s designation for Malaysia Airlines , and " ER " stands for Extended Range . It was the 404th Boeing 777 produced . The plane first flew on May 14 , 2002 , according to the Aviation Safety internet . It had fly a sum of 53,465 hour on 7,525 flight cycles ( a bicycle is one lampoon and landing of an aircraft ) .
This eccentric of aircraft is configured to carry 282 passengers — 35 in Business Class and 247 in Economy Class . It has two Rolls - Royce Trent 892 engine mounted under its 200 - groundwork ( 61 metre ) wings . The airplane has a maximum fuel mental ability of 47,380 gallons ( 179,400 liters ) and a range of 7,941 miles ( 12,779 klick ) . Its cruising speed is Mach 0.84 ( 640 mph or 897 kilometers per hour ) .
This particular aircraft last underwent sustainment on Feb. 23 , 2014 . A Malaysia Airlines interpreter said no issuing were describe during the maintenance . The aircraft had no history of major incidents before its disappearance . However , it was reportedly involve in a minor primer collision in 2012 , which resulted in significant harm to a wingtip , according toFlightglobal .
The airline
Malaysia Airlines ( MAS ) begin operation in 1972 after splitting off from Malaysia - Singapore Airlines , which was founded in 1947 . The airline business ’s home base is Kuala Lumpur International Airport , with hubs in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching . The airline operates flights throughout East and Southeast Asia , with service to Australia , New Zealand , the Middle East , Europe and , until April 2014 , Los Angeles via Tokyo . It has 105 planes in its fleet .
The Aviation Safety internet lists three fortuity ( not including Flight 370 ) involving MAS aircraft :
Sept. 2 , 1992 : Both tire collapsed , as well as the left over main appurtenance , do aFokker 50to veer off the track at Sibu Airport in Malaysia . No one was hurt .
Sept. 15 , 1995 : AFokker 50landed 500 meters from the ending of a 2,220 - time runway in Kota Kinabalu . The pilot attempted to take off and taste again but crashed into some nearby houses . A amount of 34 people on display board were killed .
March 15 , 2000 : luggage handlers unloading 80 canister from anAirbus A330were sweep over by hard toxic fumes . flack and saving personnel detect that the canisters contained oxalyl chloride , a toxic and caustic chemical substance . Several canister had leaked , causing spartan damage to the aircraft ’s fuselage . The aircraft was considered damage beyond repair . A Chinese company was fined $ 65 million for mislabeling the canister and destroying the aircraft .
Flight 370 Timeline
March 8 , 2014 ( all sentence in local time ):
12:41 a.m. : Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on a scheduled flight to Beijing . The plane , with 239 people onboard , is scheduled to land at Beijing Capital International Airport at 6:30 a.m. local time .
1:19 a.m. : Last communicating from carbon monoxide - buffer Fariq Hamid to air dealings controllers in Malaysia , as the plane fly toward Vietnam , across the Gulf of Thailand . Hamid reportedly articulate , " All right , good night . "
1:21 a.m. : The Boeing 777 - 2H6ER ’s radio detection and ranging transponder is ferment off .
2:15 a.m. : The Malaysian military detects an unidentified object on its radar jaunt west . This information becomes public roughly a workweek later , and the radar objective is thought to be trajectory 370 . The plane then disappear from military microwave radar about 200 miles ( 322 kilometers ) off the coast of Malayan country of Penang .
6:30 ante meridiem : Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is scheduled to arrive in Beijing .
8:11 a.m. : A satellite find the last signal from the planer ’s antenna
March 9 :
Within 24 hours , search cognitive process begin over the Gulf of Thailand . An oil colour slickness on the weewee is encounter near where the woodworking plane was last detect , but lab tests eventually show that the oil come from a ship , not a plane .
March 10 :
Search effort are expanded into the South China Sea , after potential debris is recognise near Hong Kong . at long last , Vietnamese searcher are unable to locate target in the urine .
It is also revealed that two passenger used stolen passports to board the flight , which fire concerns about act of terrorism .
March 11 :
An investigation into the stolen document finally finds no liaison between the humanity and known terrorist groups . Officials conclude that the passengers were potential immigrant seeking asylum as part of a broader attempt to reach Europe .
Malaysian officials say a local newspaper that military radio detection and ranging grounds suggests the plane turned around mid - flight of steps .
March 12 :
An investigation is open into the opening that Flight 370 was hijacked or counteract . China release planet persona of potential debris float between the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand . The hunt orbit is flourish , but the Malaysia administration later articulate the Formosan satellite prototype do not show component part of the missing woodworking plane .
March 13 :
Search efforts move toward the Indian Ocean , as officials prove to assemble together the plane ’s flight path after air traffic controllers lost radio detection and ranging liaison .
March 14 :
Individuals familiar with the investigation secern the New York Times that the plane lost pregnant altitude after it lost impinging with ground controllers . tidings officials dig into the possibility that one of the cowcatcher or crewmembers play a role in the plane ’s disappearance .
March 15 :
The Malayan government activity reports that the home of the pilots were searched , pursue misgiving that someone onboard may have tampered with the plane ’s communication system of rules . investigation continue to prove the potential function the pilots act in the plane ’s disappearance .
subsequently , Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak order there is a possibility that the plane ’s communication theory were " deliberately handicapped " before it disappear and the flight was on purpose hive off , though there is no evidence that the flight was commandeer .
The last satellite transmitting from Flight 370 is line to the Indian Ocean , off the coast of Australia .
March 16 :
An international search operation riding horse , focusing primarily on the Indian Ocean . New analyses suggest the plane continued to operate for roughly seven hours after it last made link with earth controller .
March 17 :
Indonesia and Australia practice patrol aircraft to research tumid sections of the southern Indian Ocean . Malaysian law enforcement officials expand their investigating to include all rider , bunch and ground staff present on March 8 .
Malayan Prime Minister Najib Razak asks Australia to lead the ongoing search procedure .
March 18 :
Reports point Thai military radar may have detect Flight 370 , but the information was not share with — or requested by — Malaysian officials until now . Search effort continue over the Indian Ocean .
March 19 :
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation connect the Malayan government ’s ongoing investigation by canvass information taken from the pilot burner ’s home flight simulator . Malaysia United States Department of Defense minister reassert that files were edit from the program on Feb. 3 .
An depth psychology of the plane ’s fuel reserves narrows the search area to a diminished part within the southerly Indian Ocean .
March 20 :
March 21 :
Search planes again fail to turn up any debris from the wanting Malaysia Airlines jetliner . Analyses by British orbiter company Inmarsat receive that the planing machine ’s unwavering hurrying and flight path suggest it is improbable that the plane was disabled by a ruinous accident .
March 22 :
An Australian patrol planing machine spots a wooden pallet in the water within the search geographical zone . A Chinese satellite orbiting Earthcaptured a new photograph of objectspotentially linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight . The range of a function show a large object quantify about 72 feet ( 22 metre ) by 43 foot ( 13 megabyte ) in the southern Indian Ocean .
March 23 :
hunting try again fail to produce any debris in the water .
March 24 :
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak hold a military press conference and announces that up - to - date satellite information indicate the Malaysia Airlines jetlinercrashed in the southerly Indian Ocean . Razak says further analysis bear by the U.K. Accidents Investigation Branch concludes that Flight 370 fly along the southerly corridor , with its last hump berth in the middle of the Indian Ocean , off the west coast of Perth .
Razak says the family line of the 239 passengers onboard have been notify .
March 25 :
Bad weather , including gale - force winds and hard rain , stall search effort for possible debris from the missing plane .
March 26 :
A theatre of debris in the Indian Ocean , consisting of 122 float objects , is seen in satellite images , allot to Malaysia ’s Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein . The images , assume on Sunday ( March 23 ) , cover an area 1,600 sea mile ( 2,575 kilometers ) off the glide of Perth , near where other satellites previously detected objective potentially linked to the missing Malayan jetliner .
March 27 :
A Thai artificial satellite pip more than 300 floating objects possibly tied to the missing sheet . The possible junk , detected by the Thailand Earth Observation Satellite , is located approximately 1,700 miles ( 2,740 kilometers ) southwest of Perth , Australia .
March 28 :
Investigators in five unlike patrol aeroplane detect " multiple objects of various colors " within a raw search arena , which is nearly 700 miles north of the previous expanse of centering . This new realm , about 1,150 miles ( 1,850 kilometer ) Mae West of the Australian city of Perth , is of interestingness after studies suggest the plane may have run out of fuel earlier , and thus crashed sooner , than previously thought .
March 30 :
An Australian search plane spots at least four floating orange object measuring more than 6 metrical foot ( 1.83 m ) in the piddle .
March 31 :
The float object realize the day before are place and recollect by Australian and Chinese ship , but after some analysis , are not believed to be linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 . A automatic bomber is deployed to seek to locate the aircraft ’s trajectory fipple flute , including the woodworking plane ’s black box , which has a roughly 30 - day stamp battery lifespan .
April 4 :
A Formosan ship detects sounds , describe as " pulse signal , " in the Indian Ocean . Investigators say the sign are at the same absolute frequency as the planer ’s fatal box .
April 7 :
An Australian ship , call Ocean Shield , nibble up signals consistent with those emit from plane black boxful in the northerly part of the designate search surface area . The first signaling last 2 hours and 20 minutes , and after the ship turns around , a second signal is observe and concur for 13 minute .
April 8 :
An Australian ship detects more signals that could be from the missing airplane ’s smutty box . The new signal last a sum of 12 minutes .
April 13 :
The Australian Ocean Shield ship detects an oil slick on the body of water , although it is unclear where the oil came from . A sample of the weewee is gather for examination .
April 14 :
An remote-controlled hoagie , the Bluefin-21 , is deploy to scan the ocean trading floor and explore for detritus or wreckage from the missing jetliner .
April 17 :
The Bluefin-21 submarine searches 35 square miles ( 90 square km ) of the sea storey , but does not locate any debris . In yet another setback , officials say the oil slick discovered in the search country did not make out from the missing plane .
April 29 :
Malaysian functionary and their international partners investigate a claim by Australian company GeoResonance that it has found possible signs of aircraft wreckage in the frame of the miss aircraft in the Bay of Bengal , 3,000 mile from the current hunt area in the Southern Indian Ocean .
May 2 :
The aerial search has conclude with no signs of rubble , and the underwater search enters a new phase angle with side scan sonar . The ship Ocean Shield is returning to interface to refill supplies and staff office , and will return to the search with Phoenix ’s Bluefin-21 submersible warship .
July 29 , 2015
The first sustain dust are found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean .
Feb. 27 , 2016
Two more Boeing 777 detritus are find on a beach in Mozambique . An analysis completed on March 24 concluded that " the debris is almost certainly from MH370 , " said Darren Chester , the Australian minister for infrastructure and raptus . He lend that heading modeling explicate how debris from the plane , which likely crash in the Indian Ocean , cease up in Mozambique .
July 22 , 2016
Australia , China and Malaysia agree that if the aircraft is not located by the time 120,000 straight kilometers ( 46,000 square miles ) have been covered , the hunting will be suspended .
July 30 , 2016
Alarge annex partfound on a Tanzanian island " highly likely " come from the missing aircraft , grant to Australia ’s ecstasy minister .
October 7 , 2016
A sherd of a wing discovered in Mauritius in May is confirmed as coming from the missing woodworking plane .
January 17 , 2017
The underwater search forMalaysia Airlines Flight 370is suspended intimately three years after the planer vanished without a trace over the Indian Ocean , concord to a joint affirmation from Chinese , Australian and Malaysian official .
