How mapping drones make low altitude aerial surveys
CCT305A2_KouXiao
1. #PR
A
Y
F O R M H
3
70
M I S S I N G
SINCE 8TH
MARCH, 2014
April 7th
, 2015
www.time.com
2. C O N T E N T S
1 Disappearance
1.1 Departure
1.2 Communication Lost
1.3 Radar
1.4 Satellite Communication Resumes
1.5 Response by Air Traffic Control
1.6 Announcement of Disappearance
1.7 Presumed Loss
1.8 Timeline of Disappearance
2 Search
2.1 Southeast Asia
2.2 Southern Indian Ocean
3 Aircraft
4 Passengers and Crew
5 In Popular Culture
6 References
3. Disappearance
Flight 370 was a scheduled red-eye flight in the early morning hours of 8
March 2014 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China. It was one of two
daily flights operated by Malaysia Airlines from its hub at Kuala Lumpur Interna-
tional Airport (KLIA) to Beijing Capital International Airport—scheduled to de-
part at 00:35 local time (MYT; UTC+08:00) and arrive at 06:30 local time (CST;
UTC+08:00).
The planned flight duration was 5 hours, 34 minutes, which would consume
an estimated 37,200 kg (82,000 lb) of jet A-1 fuel. The aircraft carried 49,100 ki-
lograms (108,200 lb) of jet fuel, including reserves, which allowed an endurance
of 7 hours, 31 minutes. The extra fuel was enough to divert to the first alternate
airport Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport or the second alternate airport Hang-
zhou Xiaoshan International Airport, which would require 4,800 kg (10,600 lb) or
10,700 kg (23,600 lb), respectively, to reach from Beijing.
On board Flight 370 were 227 passengers, 10 cabin crew, two pi-
lots (a captain and first officer), and 14,296 kg (31,517 lb) of cargo.
4. ♣♣ Departure
At 00:42, Flight 370 took off from runway 32R, and was cleared by air traffic
control (ATC) to climb to flight level 180[c]—approximately 18,000 feet (5,500
m)—on a direct path to waypoint IGARI. Voice analysis determined that the First
Officer communicated with ATC while the flight was on the ground and that the
Captain communicated with ATC after departure.Shortly after departure, the flight
was transferred from the airport’s air traffic control to “Lumpur Radar” air traffic
control on frequency 132.6 MHz. Air traffic control over peninsular Malaysia and
adjacent waters is provided by the Kuala Lumpur Area Control Center (ACC);
Lumpur Radar is the name of the frequency used for en route air traffic.[43] Lum-
pur Radar cleared Flight 370 to flight level 350—approximately 35,000 ft (10,700
m). At 01:01, Flight 370’s crew reported to Lumpur Radar that they had reached
flight level 350, which they confirmed again at 01:08.
5. The aircraft’s final automated position report and last message using the Air-
craft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) protocol was
sent at among the data provided in the message was total fuel remaining—43,800
kg (96,600 lb). The final verbal contact with air traffic control occurred at
01:19:30, when Captain Shah acknowledged a send-off by Lumpur Radar to Ho
Chi Minh ACC:
[Lumpur Radar] “Malaysian three seven zero, contact Ho Chi Minh one two
zero decimal nine. Good night.”
[Flight 370] “Good night. Malaysian three seven zero.”
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 [01:30]” using the international distress frequency to relay Vietnam-
ese air traffic control’s request for the crew to contact them; the captain said he
was able to establish contact, but just heard “mumbling” and static.Calls made to
Flight 370’s cockpit at 02:39 and 07:13 were unanswered but acknowledged by
the aircraft’s satellite data unit.
♣♣ Communication Lost
6. At 01:20:31, Flight 370 was observed on radar at the Kuala Lumpur ACC as
it passed the navigational waypoint IGARI (6°56’12”N 103°35’6”E) in the Gulf
of Thailand and five seconds later, the Mode-S symbol disappeared from radar
screens. At 01:21:13, Flight 370 disappeared from the radar screen at Kuala Lum-
pur ACC and was lost about the same time on radar at Ho Chi Minh ACC, which
claims the aircraft was at the nearby waypoint BITOD. Air traffic control uses
secondary radar, which relies on a signal emitted by a transponder on aircraft;
therefore, after 01:21 the transponder on Flight 370 was no longer functioning.
The final data from the transponder indicated the aircraft was flying at its as-
signed cruise altitude of flight level 350 and was travelling at 471 knots (872
km/h; 542 mph) true airspeed. There were few clouds around this point and no
rain or lightning nearby. Later analysis estimated that Flight 370 had 41,500 kg
(91,500 lb) of fuel when it disappeared from secondary radar.
At the time the transponder stopped functioning—01:21:13—military radar
showed Flight 370 turning right, but almost immediately making a constant left
turn to a south-westerly direction. From 01:30:35-01:35, military radar showed
Flight 370 at 35,700 ft (10,900 m) on a 231° magnetic heading, with a ground
speed of 496 knots (919 km/h; 571 mph). Flight 370 continued across the Malay
Peninsula, fluctuating between 31,000–33,000 ft (9,400–10,100 m) in altitude. At
01:52, Flight 370 was detected passing just south of Penang Island. From there,
the aircraft flew across the Strait of Malacca to or close to the waypoint VAM-
PI, passing over Pulau Perak at 02:03, after which it flew along air route N571
to waypoints MEKAR, NILAM, and possibly IGOGU. The last known location,
from and near the limits of Malaysian military radar, was at 02:22, 10 nautical
miles (19 km; 12 mi) north of waypoint MEKAR and 200 nmi (370 km; 230 mi)
northwest of Penang at an altitude of 29,500 ft (9,000 m).
♣♣ Radar
7. Because of the sensitive nature of revealing military radar capabilities, coun-
tries in the region where Flight 370 disappeared have been reluctant to release
information they may have collected from military radar. Despite possibly flying
near or over the northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia—which has an early warning
radar system—has publicly denied sighting Flight 370 on radar after contact was
lost, although the Indonesian military did track Flight 370 earlier when en route
to waypoint IGARI. Thailand and Vietnam also detected Flight 370 on radar be-
fore the transponder stopped working, but not afterwards. No radar contact was
detected by Australia, including the JORN over-the-horizon radar system, which
was believed to be looking north to detect illegal migrants and not west over the
Indian Ocean where Flight 370 is presumed to have flown based on satellite com-
munications.
8. At 02:25, the aircraft's satellite communication system sent a "log-on re-
quest" message—the first message on the system since the ACARS transmission
at 01:07—which was relayed by satellite to a ground station, both operated by
satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat. After logging on to the network,
the satellite data unit aboard the aircraft responded to hourly status requests from
Inmarsat and two ground-to-aircraft phone calls, at 02:39 and 07:13, which went
unanswered by the cockpit. The final status request and aircraft acknowledgement
occurred at 08:10. The aircraft sent a log-on request at 08:19:29 which was fol-
lowed, after a response from the ground station, by a "log-on acknowledgement"
message at 08:19:37. The log-on acknowledgement is the last piece of data avail-
able from Flight 370. The aircraft did not respond to a status request from Inmar-
sat at 09:15.
♣♣ Satellite Communication Resumes
9. At 01:38, Ho Chi Minh Area Control Centre (ACC) contacted Kuala Lumpur
Area Control Centre to query the whereabouts of Flight 370 and informed them
that they had not established verbal contact with Flight 370, which was last de-
tected by radar at waypoint BITOD. The two centres exchanged four more calls
over the next 20 minutes with no new information.
At 02:03, Kuala Lumpur ACC relayed to Ho Chi Minh ACC information re-
ceived from Malaysia Airlines' operations centre that Flight 370 was in Cambo-
dian airspace. Ho Chi Minh ACC contacted Kuala Lumpur ACC twice in the fol-
lowing eight minutes asking for confirmation that Flight 370 was in Cambodian
airspace. At 02:15, the watch supervisor at Kuala Lumpur ACC queried Malaysia
Airlines' operations centre, which said that it could exchange signals with Flight
370 and that Flight 370 was in Cambodian airspace. Kuala Lumpur ACC contact-
ed Ho Chi Minh ACC to query that the planned flight path for Flight 370 passed
through Cambodian airspace. Ho Chi Minh ACC responded that Flight 370 was
not supposed to enter Cambodian airspace and that they had already contacted
Phnom Penh ACC (which controls Cambodian airspace), which had no contact
with Flight 370. Kuala Lumpur ACC contacted Malaysia Airlines' operations cen-
tre at 02:34, inquiring about the communication status with Flight 370, and were
informed that Flight 370 was in a normal condition based on a signal download
and that it was located at 14°54′00″N 109°15′00″E. Later, another Malaysia Air-
lines aircraft, Flight 386 bound for Shanghai was requested by Ho Chi Minh ACC
to attempt to contact Flight 370 on the Lumpur Radar frequency—the frequency
on which Flight 370 last made contact with Malaysian air traffic control—and on
emergency frequencies, but without success.
♣♣ Response by Air Traffic Control
10. At 03:30, Malaysia Airlines’ operations centre informed Kuala Lumpur ACC
that the locations it had provided earlier were “based on flight projection and not
reliable for aircraft positioning.” Over the next hour, Kuala Lumpur ACC con-
tacted Ho Chi Minh ACC asking whether they had contacted Chinese air traffic
control. At 05:09, Singapore ACC was queried for information about Flight 370.
At 05:20, an undisclosed official—identified in the preliminary report released
by Malaysia as “Capt [name redacted]”—contacted Kuala Lumpur ACC request-
ing information about Flight 370; he opined that, based on known information,
“MH370 never left Malaysian airspace.”
The watch supervisor at Kuala Lumpur ACC activated the Kuala Lumpur
Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) at 05:30, over four hours af-
ter communication was lost with Flight 370. The ARCC is a command post at an
Area Control Centre that coordinates search-and-rescue activities when an aircraft
is lost.
11. Malaysia Airlines issued a media statement at 07:24, one hour after the
scheduled arrival time of the flight at Beijing, stating that contact with the flight
had been lost by Malaysian ATC at 02:40 and that the government had initiated
search and rescue operations; the time when contact was lost was later corrected
to 01:21. Neither the crew nor the aircraft's communication systems relayed a dis-
tress signal, indications of bad weather, or technical problems before the aircraft
vanished from radar screens.
♣♣ Announcement of Disappearance
12. On 24 March, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak appeared before media
at 22:00 local time to give a short statement regarding Flight 370, during which
he announced:
This evening I was briefed by representatives from the UK Air Accidents In-
vestigation Branch. They informed me that Inmarsat, the UK company that
provided the satellite data which indicated the northern and southern corri-
dors, has been performing further calculations on the data. 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 22:00 MYT, an emergency meeting was called in
Beijing for relatives of Flight 370 passengers.[17] Malaysia Airlines announced
that Flight 370 was assumed lost with no survivors. It notified most of the fami-
lies in person or via telephone, and some received the following SMS (in English
and Chinese):
Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reason-
able doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board sur-
vived. 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.
♣♣ Presumed Loss
13. On 29 January 2015, the Director General of the Department of Civil Avia-
tion Malaysia, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, announced that the status of Flight 370
would be changed to an "accident", in accordance with the Chicago Convention
on International Civil Aviation:
We have concluded that the aircraft exhausted its fuel over a defined area
of the southern Indian Ocean, and that the aircraft is located on the sea
floor close to that defined area. This is a remote location, far from any pos-
sible landing sites. It is also an area with adverse sea conditions with known
depths of more than 6,000 metres. After 327 days...and based on all available
data as well as circumstances mentioned earlier, survivability in the defined
area is highly unlikely....On behalf of the Government of Malaysia, we offi-
cially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident in accordance with
the Standards of Annexes 12 and 13 to the Chicago Convention and that all
239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are presumed to have lost
their lives.
If the official assumption is confirmed, at the time of its disappearance Flight
370 was the deadliest aviation incident in the history of Malaysia Airlines (sur-
passing the 1977 hijacking and crash of Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 that
killed all 100 passengers and crew on board) and the deadliest involving a Boeing
777, surpassing Asiana Airlines Flight 214 (3 fatalities).[34][35] In both of those
categories, Flight 370 was surpassed just 131 days later by Malaysia Airlines
Flight 17, another Boeing 777-200ER, which was shot down on 17 July 2014,
killing all 298 persons aboard.
14. ♣♣ Timeline of disappearance
8 March
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 departs Kuala Lumpur International Airport at
00:41 local time. The last voice contact with the flight is made at 1:19 with Ma-
laysian air traffic control; the final communication was an acknowledgement by
one of the pilots of instructions to contact Vietnamese air traffic control. Two
minutes later, the aircraft's transponder stops functioning and Flight 370, fly-
ing over water between Malaysia and Vietnam, disappears from the screens of
air traffic controllers in both Malaysia and Vietnam. The aircraft's satellite data
unit stops functioning at some point between 1:07 and 2:03. It logs into Inmar-
sat's satellite telecommunication network at 2:25 and transmits various automated
messages, including a message that ground-to-aircraft telephone calls at 2:40 and
7:14 were unanswered. The final transmission from the SDU occurred at 8:19; the
SDU did not respond to three automated requests at 9:15 to determine if the SDU
was still active. Later in the morning, the Royal Malaysian Air Force reviews data
collected by military radar. They find that an unidentified aircraft, later deter-
mined to be Flight 370, crossed the Malay Peninsula and was tracked until it left
the range of their radar at 2:22, while over the Andaman Sea. The satellite com-
munications are not noticed until the following day and not publicly disclosed for
several days, while the radar data is not immediately acknowledged.
At 5:30, the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre at the Kuala Lupur
Area Control Center is activated. A search and rescue effort is initiated in the
South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand around the location where Flight 370 lost
contact with air traffic control.
At 7:24, Malaysia Airlines issues a press statement stating that contact with
Flight 370 was lost at 2:40-later changed to 1:30-and that a search and rescue ef-
fort has been initiated. After contacting the families of those on board Flight 370,
the passenger manifest is released.
15. Austria and Italy confirm that two persons listed in the passenger manifest,
one from each country, were not on the flight. Both men had their passports sto-
len in Thailand within the last two years. The US National Transportation Safety
Board sends a team of investigators to Malaysia.Inmarsat hands over its data re-
garding communications with Flight 370 in response to a request from SITA (the
company providing the datalink for Flight 370’s communications equipment).
9 March
By the end of the day, 40 aircraft and more than two dozen vessels from
several nations are involved in the search. Thailand's navy shifts the focus of its
search to the Andaman Sea at the request of Malaysia. The Chief General of the
Royal Malaysian Air Force announced that Malaysia is focused on a recording of
radar and that there is a "possibility" that Flight 370 turned around and travelled
over the Andaman Sea.
Malaysia Airlines sends a team of more than 150 senior managers and care-
givers to Beijing (most passengers were from China), where a centre is estab-
lished for families of those on board to be comforted and await the latest news
from the airline; a similar centre is opened in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia Airlines
also announces that they are beginning to provide financial assistance to the fami-
lies of those on board and are offering to transport them to Kuala Lumpur.
INTERPOL confirms that the passports of the Austrian and Italian men were reg-
istered in its database of stolen passports and that no query of the database was
made. Officials investigate CCTV video of these two passengers prior to boarding
the flight. There are concerns that the passengers travelling with the stolen pass-
ports are linked to terrorism, but officials say no such links have been found.
16. 9-11 March
With the aircraft still missing, staff at Inmarsat decide to look at the data they
have from Flight 370 to determine whether there is anything they can do to assist
the search. They notice that the aircraft continued flying for several hours after it
lost contact with air traffic control and analyse it to determine the aircraft’s loca-
tion. By the morning of 11 March, they determine that the aircraft was last locat-
ed along one of two arcs and share the information with Malaysian investigators.
10 March
The Royal Malaysian Air Force confirms that Flight 370 made a "turn back."
11 March
Malaysian police announce that the passengers using the stolen passports
were two Iranian men who were likely migrants attempting to emigrate to Germa-
ny. The tickets for both passengers ended in Frankfurt. The head of INTERPOL
remarked that "the more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude
it is not a terrorist incident."
China activates the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to ag-
gregate satellite data to aid the search.
Inmarsat provides Malaysia with an initial analysis of the communications with
Flight 370. Malaysia discusses the information with US investigators and agrees
to allow the US to investigate the Inmarsat data. New Scientist publishes an arti-
cle claiming that Flight 370 "sent at least two bursts of technical data back to the
airline before it disappeared."
12 March
Malaysian officials announce that an unidentified aircraft, possibly Flight
370, was last located by military radar at 2:15 in the Andaman Sea, 200 miles
(320 km) northwest of Penang Island and near the limits of the military radar's
coverage.
17. 13 March
An article published by the Wall Street Journal claims that Flight 370 contin-
ued to fly for hours after it was last seen by air traffic control, citing undisclosed
US investigators. The article originally states that messages continued to be sent
about engine performance to engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce; the newspaper
soon corrects the article to say the claim is "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." Malaysia denies the report.
Speaking at a press conference, White House spokesman Jay Carney says "It
is my understanding that based on some new information that's not necessarily
conclusive—but new information—an additional search area may be opened in
the Indian Ocean."
China criticizes Malaysia's handling of the search coordination and flow of
information.
14 March
Inmarsat publicly acknowledges that they recorded transmissions with the
aircraft for several hours after it disappeared from air traffic control over the
South China Sea.
Malaysian Airlines retires the MH370/MH371 flight number pair and begins
using MH318/MH319.
18. 15 March
In a press conference, Malaysian PM Najib confirms that Flight 370 remained in
contact with Inmarsat's satellite communication network for several hours after it was lost
by air traffic control. He states that the ACARS messaging system was disabled early in
the flight, but that the final satellite communication was made at 8:11. The final commu-
nication was made along one of two arcs: a "Northern Corridor" streching from northern
Thailand to Kazakhstan and a "Southern Corridor" from Indonesia into the southern In-
dian Ocean. PM Najib says the search in the South China Sea will be called off and the
deployment of assets reassessed. Diplomatic notes are sent by Malaysia to all of the coun-
tries along the two corridors.
A team from Inmarsat arrives in Malaysia to assist in the investigation, which in-
volves Malaysia, the US, and the UK.
Investigators visit the homes of both pilots. A flight simulator in the home of Captain
Shah is confiscated. Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar says is was the first visit to
the homes of the pilots, but officials later claim that they visited the homes of both pilots
on 9 March.
17 March
Australia agrees to lead the search along the Southern Corridor in the southern In-
dian Ocean, which mostly lies within Australia's concurrent aeronautical and maritime
Search and Rescue regions. A shipping broadcast is made requesting assistance in the
search.
18 March
Australia conducts its first aerial search of the southern Indian Ocean, 2,500 kilome-
tres (1,600 mi) southwest of Perth. The search area was determined by the US National
Transportation Safety Board and is approximately 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 sq
mi) in size.
19. 19 March
The search area is revised to approximately 305,000 km2 (118,000 sq mi)
about 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) southwest of Perth. Three merchant ships have
joined the search.
20 March
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announces that satellite imagery tak-
en on 16 March appears to show two large objects floating in the ocean 2,500 km
(1,600 mi) southwest of Perth. The images, taken by Digital Globe and analysed
by the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation, show objects which appear
to be 24 m (79 ft) and 5 m (16 ft) in length at 44°03′02″S 91°13′27″E.
Aircraft were dispatched to the area of the satellite images, but did not find
the objects. HMAS Success and a merchant vessel are en route to the area, joining
a merchant vessel already in the vicinity. Six merchant vessels have assisted in
the search since a shipping broadcast was made on 17 March.
22 March
Officials announce that images captured by a Chinese satellite on 18 March
shows a possible object measuring 22.5 by 13 metres (74 by 43 ft) at 44°57′29″S
90°13′43″E, approximately 3,170 kilometres (1,970 mi) west of Perth and 120 ki-
lometres (75 mi) from the earlier sighting.
20. 24 March
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak announces at a press conference at
22:00 local time that Flight 370 is presumed to have gone down in the southern
Indian Ocean with no survivors. Shortly before PM Najib's announcement, Ma-
laysia Airlines states to families that it assumes "beyond reasonable doubt" there
are no survivors.
Search area narrowed to the southern part of the Indian Ocean west and
southwest of Australia. The northern search corridor and the northern half of the
southern search corridor (the waters between Indonesia and Australia) are defini-
tively ruled out. An Australian search aircraft spots an "orange rectangular object"
and a "gray or green circular object," 1,550 mi southwest of Perth.
25 March
Around 200 relatives of Flight 370 passengers protest outside the Malaysian
embassy in Beijing, a rare event in China. Among the chants by the angry and
distraught relatives are "Liars!" and "Tell the truth! Return our relatives!" Mean-
while, China demands Malaysia turn over the satellite data which led them to
determine that Flight 370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors.
China also sends a special envoy to Malaysia.
26 March
Officials announces that images captured by a French satellite on 23 March
appear to show about 122 floating objects up to 23 m in length. The possible
pieces of debris were captured 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, which is about 930 km (580
mi) north of the earlier satellite observations.
The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) announces that they
have appointed an accredited representative to join the investigation team in Ma-
laysia. As the state of manufacture of the aircraft's engines, the AAIB is autho-
rized to join the investigation by ICAO protocol.
21. 27 March
Officials reveal that images captured by a Thai satellite on 24 March appear
to show about 300 floating objects 2–15 m (6 ft 7 in–49 ft 3 in) in size. The possi-
ble objects are about 2,700 km (1,700 mi) southwest of Perth and about 200 kilo-
metres (120 mi) south of the French observations.
28 March
Search shifts to a new 319,000-square-kilometre (123,000 sq mi) area,
around 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) northeast of the previous search area.[55][12]
29 March
Malaysia announces that an international panel will be formed to investigate
the Flight 370 incident.
30 March
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), headed by Angus Houston,
is established to coordinate the search effort. It becomes operational the follow-
ing day and assumes from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) the
role of coordinating the search effort and communications with the media, foreign
governments, and between Australian government agencies.
22. 1 April
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a major industry trade
group, announces that they will form a task group to enhance aircraft tracking to
ensure a disappearance such as Flight 370 never happens again.
2 April
The Royal Navy survey vessel HMS Echo makes a possible ULB detection.
After tests the following day, the detection is determined to be an artefact of the
ship's sonar system.
4 April
Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 makes a possible ULB detection.
Diagram of location of ship, thermocline, towed pinger locater at end of tow
cable, and blackbox pinger.
23. 5 April
Haixun 01 makes another possible ULB detection about 3 km (1.9 mi) west
of the previous day's detection and near 25°S 101°E. Neither detection was re-
corded. HMS Echo and a submarine were later tasked to the location of the detec-
tions by Haixun 01 and unable to make any detections. It was determined that the
depth of the seafloor, surface noise, and the equipment used by Haixun 01 made it
unlikely that the detections were from ULBs.
The ADV Ocean Shield deploys its second TPL, after the first exhibited
problematic acoustic noise. Two detections are made. The first detection, made
while the TPL was descending, lasted over two hours before it was lost; however,
it was made at at 33kHz, while the ULBs on Flight 370's flight recorders emit a
pulse at 37.5±1kHz. When the vessel passed the location in the opposite direction,
the second detection was made and lasted for 13 minutes. Houston calls this the
"most promising lead" thus far in the search.
Malaysia reorganizes its investigation team to consist of an airworthiness
group, an operations group, and a medical and human factors group. The airwor-
thiness group will examine issues related to maintenance records, structures, and
systems of the aircraft. The operations group will review flight recorders, oper-
ations, and meteorology. The medical and human factors group will investigate
psychological, pathological, and survival factors. Malaysia also announced that it
had set up three ministerial committees—a Next of Kin Committee, a committee
to organise the formation of the Joint Investigation Team, and a committee re-
sponsible for Malaysian assets deployed in the search effort.
6 April
It has now been 30 days since Flight 370 presumably crashed in the southern
Indian Ocean, which marks the minimum battery life of the ULBs on Flight 370’s
flight recorders. The manufacturer of the ULBs predicts that the maximum battery
life is about 40 days.
24. 6–16 April
Sorties by AP-3C Orion aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force deploy
sonobouys in locations near the 7th BTO arc where water depths are favourable
for detection by sonobouy. The sonobouys float on the surface and release a hy-
drophone which descends 1,000 ft and can detect a ULB signal up to 4,000 m
below the surface. Each sortie can deploy up to 84 sonobouys, capable of search-
ing around 3,000 km2
. One possible ULB detections was made on 10 April with
a sonobouy close to the location of the ADV Ocean Shield, but was soon deter-
mined to be unrelated to Flight 370's ULBs.
8 April
ADV Ocean Shield makes two possible ULB detections, close to those of 5
April, lasting about five and a half minutes and seven minutes. The following day,
Houston emphasises that the acoustic search will continue for as long as feasible,
because more and better quality detections will better pinpoint the location of the
aircraft (if indeed the detections were from Flight 370's ULBs). He notes that the
batteries will expire soon and that the TPL can search six times more seafloor
per day than the autonomous underwater vehicle carried aboard the ADV Ocean
Shield.
9 April
Malaysia submits a five-page preliminary report to the International Civil
Aviation Organization, the United Nation’s civil aviation body. The report, dated
9 April but not publicly released until 1 May, includes a call for better tracking
technology for commercial aircraft.
10 April
A possible ULB detection is made by a sonobouy deployed near the ADV
Ocean Shield. The following day, officials say that the detection is unlikely to be
related to Flight 370.
25. 13 April
An oil slick is found 5.5 km (3.4 mi) from possible ULB detections made by
the ADV Ocean Shield. On 17 April, the JACC announces that tests of samples
from the oil slick were negative for both jet fuel and hydraulic fluid.
14 April
The ULBs have now been underwater for 38 days. Considering that the ULBs
have a 30-40 day battery life and that no possible detections made in almost a
week, ADV Ocean Shield stops searching with the TPL and deploys the Blue-
fin-21, an autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with side-scan sonar, to scan
the seafloor in the vicinity of the possible ULB detections. Analysis of the detec-
tions by the ADV Ocean Shield determined they did not match the nominal char-
acteristics of the ULBs, but experts determine that, although unlikely, they may
have originated from a damaged ULB and the decision is made to search the sea-
floor in the vicinity of the detections (near 21°S 104°E). During this new phase
of the search—the seafloor sonar survey—the torpedo-shaped Bluefin-21 will be
deployed with a programmed area to scan. Each mission scans about 40 km2
(15
sq mi) of seafloor and takes about 24 hours: two hours to descend, 16 hours spent
scanning the seafloor, two hours to return to the surface, where it is recovered
and takes about four hours to change the batteries and download data from the
mission to be analysed aboard the ADV Ocean Shield. The first mission ends pre-
maturely when Bluefin-21 reached its maximum operating depth; it needs to be
about 50 m (160 ft) above the seafloor to obtain a reliable image.
23 April
A metal object, appearing to be a piece of riveted sheet metal, washes up on
the Western Australian coast, 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Augusta. The ATSB deter-
mined the following day that the object is unrelated to Flight 370.
26. 28 April
The surface search ends. In a press conference, Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott cites the fact that any debris would likely have become waterlogged
and sunk and that the aircraft involved in the surface search were "operating at
close to the limit of sensible and safe operation." The surface search in South-
east Asia and the Indian Ocean lasted 52 days, 41 of which Australia coordinated
the search, and more than 4,500,000 km2 (1,700,000 sq mi) of ocean surface was
searched. In the Southern Indian Ocean, twenty-nine aircraft from seven coun-
tries conducted a total of 334 search flights; fourteen ships from several countries
were also involved. Although the seafloor sonar survey will continue, PM Abbott
explains that plans for the next phase of the search are being developed. The next
phase will involve commercial companies and employ towed sonar to more easily
scan large areas of the seafloor.
1 May
The interim report submitted earlier by Malaysia to the ICAO, dated 9 April,
is released publicly. Flight 370’s cargo manifest and seating plan are also released
along with both audio recordings and a transcript of communications between
Flight 370 and Malaysian air traffic control.
2–22 May
The seafloor sonar survey is suspended on 2 May as the AVD Ocean Shield
returns to port to replenish supplies and personnel. Within two hours of its first
launch after returning to the search area on 13 May, Bluefin 21 developed a com-
munications problem and was recovered. Spare parts from the UK were required
and the AVD Ocean Shield returned to port to collect the parts. After rectifying
the issue, the seafloor sonar survey resumes on 22 May.
27. 5 May
A tripartite meeting is held with representatives from Australia (Warren
Truss, Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development), Malaysia (Hisham-
muddin Hussein, Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister), and China
(Yang Chuantang, Transport Minister) concerning the next phase of the search.
During the press conference, Truss announced that the US Navy extended the
contract for Bluefin-21 by four weeks.
13 May
The Wall Street Journal publishes a commentary by Malaysian PM Najib,
who defends Malaysia's responds to the disappearance of Flight 370 but admits
that his government "didn't get everything right."
21 May
The Chinese vessel Zhu Kezhen departs Fremantle to begin conducting the
bathymetric survey. Since available bathymetric data for the area is of poor reso-
lution, the bathymetric survey is necessary for the safe operation of towed equip-
ment which will be used during the next phase of the search.
27 May
The complete log of transmissions between Flight 370 and Inmarsat via satel-
lite are released by Malaysia, after weeks of public pressure.
28 May
The seafloor sonar survey is completed. After 30 deployments of the Blue-
fin-21 to depths of 3,000–5,000 m (9,800–16,400 ft), which scanned 860 km2
of
seabed, no objects associated with Flight 370 were discovered. After analysis of
data from the last mission, the ATSB announces the following day that search in
the vicinity of the acoustic detections is complete and the area can be discounted
as the final location of Flight 370.
28. 4 June
A recording of an underwater sound that could have been that of Flight 370
hitting the water is released by researchers from Curtin University. However, the
researchers believe that the sound is most likely unrelated to Flight 370. The lead
researcher believes there is a small chance—perhaps 10 percent—that the acous-
tic event is related to Flight 370.
Australia opens the tender process for the underwater search. Bidders may
submit proposals until 30 June.
10 June
The ATSB hires Fugro, which will use the MV Fugro Equator, to join the Zhu
Kezhen in performing the bathymetric survey.
12 June
A Malaysian official, the head of the Malaysian government committee to
handle the needs of families of Flight 370 passengers, announces that families of
the missing passengers will receive US$50,000 per person as an interim compen-
sation.
26 June
The ATSB releases a report, MH370 – Definition of Underwater Search Ar-
eas, discussing the methodology used to determine a new search area along the
7th BTO arc determined by the aircraft’s communication with the Inmarsat sat-
ellite. The search will focus on a priority area approximately 60,000 km2
in size.
A bathymetric survey, already underway, of the region will take around three
months to complete; the new underwater search is expected to begin in August.
Australia & Malaysia are working on a Memorandum of Understanding to cov-
er financial and co-operation arrangements for search and recovery activities.
Among other details, the ATSB report concluded that an unresponsive crew or
hypoxia event “best fit the available evidence” for the 5-hour period of the flight
as it travelled south over the Indian Ocean, likely on autopilot.
29. 17 July
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down in a rebel-controlled area of
Ukraine. Malaysia's Defence Minister assures the public that the additional inci-
dent will not detract from Malaysia's commitment to the search for Flight 370.
21 July
Angus Houston, the head of the JACC, is appointed as Australia's special en-
voy in Ukraine to recover and repatriate bodies of Australian victims and ensure
that a proper investigation of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is initiated
in accordance with international standards. Around this time, Houston leaves the
agency; Deputy Coordinator Judith Zielke assumes the leadership of the JACC
and is later appointed its Chief Coordinator.
6 August
Australia awards Fugro a A$50 million contract to conduct the underwater
search. In addition, Malaysia also committed vessels to the bathymetric survey
and underwater search effort.
8 August
Khazanah Nasional—the majority shareholder and a Malaysian state-run in-
vestment arm—announces its plan to purchase the remainder of the airline, there-
by renationalising it. The move has been anticipated due to the airline's poor fi-
nancial performance, exacerbated by the combined effect on consumer confidence
of the loss of Flights 370 and 17.
14 August
An HSBC employee and her husband are arrested for allegedly siphoning
111,000 Malaysian ringgit from bank accounts of several Flight 370 passengers in
July.
20 September
The Zhu Kezhen finishes bathymetric survey operations and begins return
passage to China.
30. 6 October
The underwater search begins. GO Phoenix, which left port at Jakarta on 24
September, begins work about 1,800 km (1,100 mi) west of Western Australia.
8 October
Officials announce that the priority area to be searched is further south of the
area identified in the June ATSB report. The ATSB releases a report (a supplement
to the June report) that details the methodology behind refinements to the analysis
of satellite communications, which resulted in the shift in the priority search area.
A peer-reviewed paper is published online by the Journal of Navigation, a jour-
nal of the Royal Institute of Navigation, by Inmarsat scientists who analysed the
communications with Flight 370. The paper details the methodology of the cal-
culations and how continual changes, especially during the first few weeks of the
search, resulted in the shifting search zones. It was released as an open access
article with a Creative Commons Attribution license.
23 October
Fugro Discovery commences search operations.
26 October
Fugro Equator ends its bathymetric survey operations and commenced pas-
sage to Fremantle, where it will be refitted and mobilised to join GO Phoenix and
Fugro Discover in the underwater search. Over 150,000 square kilometres (58,000
sq mi) of seafloor have been surveyed. If necessary, bathymetric survey opera-
tions may recommence in the future.
16 November
Fugro Equator departs Freemantle to resume work on the bathymetric survey
after delays in the arrival of equipment needed for it to work on the underwater
search.
31. 19 November
The JACC releases a video explaining the work being carried out and com-
plexities of the underwater search.
17 December
Fugro Equator finishes bathymetric survey work and begins return to Fre-
mantle, where it will be refitted for the underwater search. The bathymetric sur-
vey charted 208,000 km2
of seafloor. The ATSB releases a video, titled Bathyme-
try of the MH370 Search Area, which presents a visualisation of the bathymetric
data collected in the search area.
15 January 2015
Fugro Equator joins the search. It departed Fremantle on 6 January.
18 January
Search operations are suspended due to 5–6 m waves caused by Tropical Cy-
clone Bansi. The search fully resumes by 23 January.
22 January
The ATSB calls for expressions of interest for recovery operations of Flight
370, so that a recovery effort can be mobilised quickly and effectively if and
when debris from Flight 370 is located. The request will allow the ATSB to deter-
mine which organisations can supply the equipment and necessary expertise for
the recovery effort.
32. 29 January
The Malaysian government officially declares Flight 370 an accident, in ac-
cordance with Annexes 12 and 13 to the Chicago Convention, with no survivors.
A fourth vessel—MV Fugro Supporter—joins the underwater search.[119] It is
equipped with a Kongsberg HUGIN 4500 autonomous underwater vehicle and
will be able to search areas which can't be effectively searched by the towfish
used by the other vessels.
1 February
Search operations are suspended due to effects of tropical cyclone Eunice
and ex-tropical cyclone Diamondra, causing ocean conditions up to sea state 8
with waves of 9–14 m (30–46 ft). Search operations resume on 5 February by Fu-
gro Equator, 8 February by Fugro Discovery, and 9 February by Fugro Supporter.
8 March
An interim report, required by international protocol, is issued by Malaysia's
Ministry of Transport on the one-year anniversary of the flight's disappearance.
The report focuses on factual information rather than analysis of possible causes
of Flight 370's disappearance. One significant issue, not previously revealed pub-
licly, is that the battery for the underwater locator beacon attached to the flight
data recorder had expired in December 2013, which may have compromised its
performance.
17 March
The search resumes after being suspended for several days due to poor
weather associated with ex-Tropical Cyclone Haliba.
33. A search and rescue effort was launched soon after the aircraft's disappear-
ance in Southeast Asia, but the following week, analysis of satellite communi-
cations between the aircraft and a communications satellite determined that the
aircraft had continued flying for several hours and the final transmission from
the aircraft was made over the Southern
Indian Ocean, west of Australia. The
surface search in the southern Indian
Ocean between 18 March and 28 April
searched over 4,600,000 square kilo-
metres and in- volved 19 vessels and
345 search sor- ties by military aircraft.
The current phase of the search is
a bathymetric survey and sonar search of the seafloor, about 1,800 kilometres
southwest of Perth, Australia.
The search for Flight 370 is the most expensive search operation in avi-
ation history, but has failed to locate any physical debris from the aircraft. In
June 2014, Time estimated that the total search effort to that point had cost ap-
proximately US$70 million. The tender for the underwater search is AU$52 mil-
lion (US$43 million or €35 million)—shared by Australia and Malaysia—for 12
months, but would differ if found in more or less time.
Since 30 March 2014, the search has been coordinated by the Joint Agency
Coordination Centre (JACC), an Australian government agency established spe-
cifically to co-ordinate the search effort to locate and recover Flight 370, which
primarily involves the Malaysian, Chinese, and Australian governments.
Search
ADV Ocean Shield de-
ploys the Bluefin-21
autonomous underwater
vehicle, which conducted
the seafloor sonar survey
from 14 April - 28 May.
34. The Kuala Lumpur Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) was
activated at 05:30—four hours after communication was lost with Flight 370—to
co-ordinate search and rescue efforts. Search efforts began in the Gulf of Thai-
land and South China Sea. On the second day of the search, Malaysian officials
revealed that radar recordings indicated Flight 370 may have turned around; the
search zone was expanded to include part of the Strait of Malacca. On 12 March,
the chief of the Royal Malaysian Air Force announced that an unidentified air-
craft—believed to be Flight 370—had travelled across the Malay peninsula and
was last sighted on military radar 370 km northwest of Penang Island; search ef-
forts were subsequently increased in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.
Records of signals sent between the aircraft and a communications satellite
over the Indian Ocean revealed that the aircraft had continued flying for almost
six hours after its final sighting on Malaysian military radar. Initial analysis of
these communications determined that Flight 370 was along one of two arcs—
equidistant from the satellite—when its last signal was sent; the same day this
analysis was publicly disclosed, 15 March, authorities announced they would
abandon search efforts in the South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand, and Strait of
Malacca to focus their efforts on the two corridors. The northern arc—from north-
ern Thailand to Kazakhstan—was soon discounted as the aircraft would have to
pass through heavily militarised airspace and those countries claimed their mili-
tary radar would have detected an unidentified aircraft entering their airspace.
♠♠ Southeast Asia
35. The focus of the search shifted to the Southern Indian Ocean west of Austra-
lia and within Australia's concurrent aeronautical and maritime Search and Res-
cue regions that extend to 75°E longitude. Accordingly, on 17 March, Australia
agreed to lead the search in the southern locus from Sumatra to the southern Indi-
an Ocean.
Initial Search
From 18–27 March, the search effort focused on a 305,000 km2
area about
2,600 km south-west of Perth that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said is
“as close to nowhere as it’s possible to be” and which is renowned for its strong
winds, inhospitable climate, hostile seas, and deep ocean floors. Satellite imag-
ery of the region was analysed; several objects of interest and two possible debris
fields were identified on images captured between 16–26 March. None of these
possible objects were found by aircraft or ships.
♠♠ Southern Indian Ocean
36. Revised estimates of the radar track and the aircraft's remaining fuel led to a
move of the search 1,100 km north-east of the previous area on 28 March which
was followed by another shift on 4 April. An intense effort began to locate the
underwater locator beacons attached to the aircraft's flight recorders, whose bat-
teries were expected to expire around 7 April. Two ships equipped with towed
pinger locators and a submarine equipped with a hull-mounted acoustic system,
began searching for pings along a 240-kilometre seabed line believed to be the
Flight 370 impact area. Operators considered it a shot in the dark, when compar-
ing the vast search area with the fact that a TPL could only search up to 130 km2
per day. Between 4–8 April several acoustic detections were made that were close
to the frequency and rhythm of the sound emitted by the flight recorders' ULBs;
analysis of the acoustic detections determined that, although unlikely, the detec-
tions could have come from a damaged ULB. A sonar search of the seafloor near
the detections was carried out between 14 April and 28 May without any sign of
Flight 370. It was later revealed that the battery for the ULB attached to Flight
370's flight data recorder expired in December 2012 and may not have been as
capable.
37. Underwater Search
In late June, details of the next phase of the search were announced; officials
have called this phase the "underwater search", despite the previous seafloor so-
nar survey. Continued refinement of analysis of Flight 370's satellite communica-
tions identified a "wide area search" along the arc where Flight 370 was located
when it last communicated with the satellite. The priority search area within the
wide area search is in its southern extent. Some of the equipment to be used for
the underwater search operates best when towed 200 m above the seafloor and is
towed at the end of a 10 km cable. Available bathymetric data for this region was
of poor resolution, thus necessitating a bathymetric survey of the search area be-
fore the underwater phase began. Commencing in May, the bathymetric survey
charted around 208,000 square kilometres of seafloor through 17 December 2014,
when it was suspended for the ship conducting the survey to be mobilised in the
underwater search.
The underwater phase of the search, which began on 6 October 2014, uses
three vessels equipped with towed deep water vehicles, which use side-scan so-
nar, multi-beam echo sounders, and video cameras to locate and identify aircraft
debris. A fourth vessel joined the search at the end of January 2015; it has an au-
tonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) which can search areas which cannot be ef-
fectively searched by equipment on the other vessels. As of 18 March 2015, over
30,000 square kilometres of seafloor has been searched, which is about 50 percent
of the priority search area; with no significant delays, the search of the priority
search area will be completed around May 2015.
38. 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 powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 892 engines and configured to carry 282
passengers. It had accumulated 53,471.6 hours and 7,526 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 aircraft was in compliance with all applicable Airworthiness Directives
for the airframe and engines. A replenishment of the crew oxygen system—a rou-
tine maintenance task—was performed on 7 March 2014; an examination of this
procedure found nothing unusual.
The Boeing 777, introduced in 1994, is generally regarded by aviation ex-
perts as having a safety record that is one of the best of any commercial aircraft.
Since its first commercial flight in June 1995, there have been only four 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; Asiana
Airlines Flight 214 in 2013, in which three people died; and Malaysia Airlines
Flight 17, which was shot down over Ukraine with 298 people aboard in July
2014.
Aircraft
39. 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.
Crew
All 12 crew members were Malaysian citizens. Two pilots were among the crew:
•The pilot in command was 53-year-old Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah from Pen-
ang. He joined Malaysia Airlines as a cadet pilot in 1981 and, after training and
receiving his commercial pilot's license, became a Second Officer with the airline
in 1983. Captain Shah was promoted to captain of the Boeing 737-400 in 1991,
captain of Airbus A330-300 in 1996, and to captain of Boeing 777-200 in 1998.
He had been a Type Rating Instructor and Type Rating Examiner since 2007 and
had 18,365 hours of flying experience.
•The co-pilot was 27-year-old First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid. He joined Malay-
sia Airlines as a cadet pilot in 2007 and became a Second Officer on Boeing 737-
400 aircraft. He was promoted to first officer of Boeing 737-400 aircraft in 2010
and later transitioned to Airbus A330-300 aircraft in 2012. In November 2013, he
began training as first officer on Boeing 777-200 aircraft. Flight 370 was his final
training flight and he was scheduled to be examined on his next flight. Hamid had
2,763 hours of flying experience.
Passengers and Crew
40. Passengers
Of the 227 passengers, 152 were Chinese citizens, including a group of 19
artists with 6 family members and 4 staff returning from a calligraphy exhibition
of their work in Kuala Lumpur; 38 passengers were Malaysian. The remaining
passengers were from 13 different countries. Twenty passengers — 12 of whom
were from Malaysia and 8 from China — were employees of Freescale Semicon-
ductor.
Under a 2007 agreement with Malaysia Airlines, Tzu Chi – an internation-
al 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 mem-
bers of the Chinese passengers flew to Kuala Lumpur. Some other family mem-
bers chose to remain in China, fearing they would feel too isolated in Malaysia.
41. The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been dubbed as one of
the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.
Several documentaries have been produced about the flight. The Smithsonian
Channel aired a one-hour documentary about the flight on 6 April 2014, titled
Malaysia 370: The Plane That Vanished. The Discovery Channel broadcast a one-
hour documentary about Flight 370 on 16 April 2014 titled Flight 370: The Miss-
ing Links.
An episode of the television documentary series Horizon titled "Where is
Flight MH370?" was broadcast on 17 June 2014 on BBC Two. The programme,
narrated by Amanda Drew, documents how the aircraft disappeared, what experts
believe happened to it, and how the search has unfolded. The programme also
examines such new technologies as flight recorder streaming and Automatic de-
pendent surveillance-broadcast (ADSB), which may help prevent similar disap-
pearances in the future. It concludes by noting that Ocean Shield had spent two
months searching 850 square kilometres of ocean, but that it had searched far to
the north of the Inmarsat "hotspot" on the final arc, at approximately 28 degrees
south, where the aircraft was most likely to have crashed. On 8 October 2014, a
modified version of the Horizon programme was broadcast in the US by PBS as
an episode of Nova, titled "Why Planes Vanish", with a different narrator.
The first fictional account of the mystery was Scott Maka's MH370: A Novel-
la, published three months after the aircraft's disappearance.
The aviation disaster documentary television series Mayday (also known as
Air Crash Investigation or Air Emergency) produced an episode on the disaster,
titled "Malaysia 370: What Happened?" In the UK, it aired on the first anniversa-
ry of Flight 370's disappearance, 8 March 2015.
In Popular Culture
42. • Rahma, Azharuddin Abdul (29 January 2015). "Announcement on MH370 by Director General – Department of Civil
Aviation Malaysia" (PDF). Official Site for MH370. Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
• MacLeod, Calum; Winter, Michael; Gray, Allison (8 March 2014). “Beijing-bound flight from Malaysia missing”. USA
Today. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
• “Saturday, March 08, 04:20 PM MYT +0800 Media Statement – MH370 Incident released at 4.20pm”. Malaysia Airlines.
scroll down to find “March 08, 04:20 PM MYT”. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
• “Saturday, March 08, 09:05 AM MYT +0800 Malaysia Airlines MH370 Flight Incident – 2nd Media Statement”. Malay-
sia Airlines. scroll down to find “2nd Media Statement”. Archived from the original on 8 March 2014.
• “MH 370 – Definition of Underwater Search Areas” (PDF). Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 26 June 2014. Archived
from the original on 27 August 2014.
• “Radar data shows MH370 flew erratically, NYT reports”. Malay Mail Online. 15 March 2014. Retrieved 18 December
2014.
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sia Airlines. scroll down to find “3rd Media Statement”. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
• “Malaysia Airlines MH370: Last communication revealed”. BBC News. 12 March 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
• Hildebrandt, Amber (10 March 2014). “Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: ‘Mystery compounded by mystery’”. CBC
News. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
• Buncombe, Andrew; Withnall, Adam (10 March 2014). “Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Oil slicks in South China Sea
‘not from missing jet’, officials say”. The Independent. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
• Grudgings, Stuart. “Malaysia Airlines plane crashes in South China Sea with 239 people aboard: report”. Retrieved 8
March 2014.
• Lokman, Tasnim (9 March 2014). “Missing MH370: Indonesia helps in search for airliner”. New Straits Times. Retrieved
17 January 2015.
• “Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Distraught families told by text message to assume ‘beyond doubt no one survived’”.
The Independent. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
• Thomas Fuller; Chris Buckley (24 March 2014). “Malaysian Leader Says Flight 370 Ended in Indian Ocean”. The New
York Times.
• “Flight MH370 ‘crashed in south Indian Ocean’ – Malaysia PM”. BBC News. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
• “Australia agrees to lead search in Indian Ocean for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370”. The Canberra Times. 17
March 2014. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014.
• Weaver, Matthew (24 March 2014). “Blog: Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (March 24) – MH370 families attack Malay-
sian government over loss of plane”. The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
• “MH370 missing Malaysia Airlines plane: Search might be in wrong spot, investigators say”. News.com.au. 9 October
2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
• “Transcript of Press Conference, 28 August 2014”. jacc.gov.au. JACC. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
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• “New missing Malaysian plane MH370 search area announced”. BBC News. 26 June 2014. Retrieved 15 November
2014. The search for the missing airliner is already among most expensive in aviation history.
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ReferenceWhole Article Comes From: wikipedia
