Ten years ago, on March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished from radar screens on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The Boeing 777’s disappearance sparked one of the biggest aviation mysteries in history, which remains unsolved today.
What is Known
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The last transmission from the plane came about 40 minutes after takeoff when Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off with “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero” as it entered Vietnamese airspace. Shortly after, its transponder was turned off, making tracking difficult.
Military radar showed the plane deviating from its planned route. It flew back over Malaysia before heading northwest towards the Andaman Sea. It then turned south towards the Indian Ocean before contact was lost.
Underwater Searches
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Satellite data analysis suggested that MH370 likely crashed in the remote southern Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. This prompted a two-year, $143 million underwater search led by Malaysia, Australia and China that covered 120,000 sq km but failed to find any debris.
In 2018, a private U.S. company, Ocean Infinity, launched a separate “no cure, no fee” search across 112,000 sq km of seabed, which came up empty after three months of operations.
Debris
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Over 30 pieces of suspected aircraft debris have washed up along the African coast and Indian Ocean islands, with only three wing fragments confirmed as being from MH370.
This debris was used to try to model potential drift patterns and trajectories to pinpoint a possible crash site, but it did not provide definitive answers.
Investigation Report
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A 495-page report published in 2018 concluded that MH370’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to veer it off course but stopped short of assigning blame.
It criticized mistakes made by air traffic control centres and issued recommendations but said the plane’s fate ultimately depended on recovering the wreckage and black boxes.
Conspiracy Theories
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The total absence of MH370’s wreckage and data recorders has fueled a litany of conspiracy theories ranging from mechanical failure, pilot hijacking or suicide to more far-fetched ideas like alien abduction.
Some experts lean towards the theory of experienced pilot involvement given the deliberate course deviations, but investigators found nothing amiss in the backgrounds of MH370’s captain and first officer.
New Search?
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This week, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the government may re-open the investigation for compelling reasons.
His transport minister revealed that Ocean Infinity had been invited to present a new search proposal that Malaysia would discuss cooperation with Australia if approved.
For families of the 239 people on board MH370, each potential lead offers a glimmer of hope that the mystery could one day be solved – providing some answers and closure after an excruciating decade of uncertainty over the plane’s fate.
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