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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

9M-MRO in 2011
Missing aircraft
Date	8 March 2014
Summary	Missing (Presumed crashed)
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
Fatalities	239 (all aboard, presumed)
Survivors	0 (presumed)

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was a scheduled international passenger flight that disappeared on 8 March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, last made contact with air traffic control less than an hour after takeoff. Operated by Malaysia Airlines (MAS), the aircraft carried 12 crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations, the majority of passengers being Chinese citizens. Although the whereabouts of the plane were still not known, as of March 24, officials with both Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government believe the plane was lost in the Indian Ocean, with no survivors.

On the same day that contact with the plane was lost, a joint search and rescue effort, later reported as the largest in history, was initiated in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. The search area was later extended to include the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea. On 15 March, in the wake of media reports that US investigators believed that the aircraft had headed west back across the Malay Peninsula after air traffic control lost contact and that a satellite had continued to receive "pings" from the aircraft for several hours, the search was expanded to include the Indian Ocean. As of 18 March, 26 countries were participating in the search.

On 20 March, a series of satellite images showing potential aircraft debris in the southern Indian Ocean south west of Australia, at the southernmost tip of the southern locus, prompted increased search activity in the area. Further debris were spotted in the vicinity by Australian and Chinese military aircraft on 24 March.

On 24 March, the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters in a late night conference that "according to new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean." He said that the conclusions were based upon new analysis by UK aviation investigators and satellite company Inmarsat. Malaysia Airlines subsequently notified the families that it is presumed that no one survived. If the official presumption of no survivors holds, it would be the deadliest accident in the history of what is now Malaysia Airlines, surpassing the 1977 hijacking and crash of Malaysian Airline System Flight 653, which killed all 100 passengers and crew aboard.

Disappearance

The flight departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 8 March 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 (542 mph; 872 km/h) 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 6°55′15″N 103°34′43″E / 6.92083°N 103.57861°E / 6.92083; 103.57861, corresponding to 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 after taking a sharp turn toward the Strait of Malacca. The sharp turn seemed to be intentional seeing that the plane would have taken 2 minutes to make such a turn, and during that time there was no emergency call.

The aircraft was expected to contact air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City as it passed into Vietnamese airspace just north of the point where contact was lost. The captain of another aircraft had attempted to reach the pilots of MH370 "just after 1:30 a.m." to relay Vietnamese Air Traffic Control's request for MH370 to contact it; the captain said he was able to establish contact, but just heard "mumbling" and static.

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) issued a media statement at 07:24, one hour after the scheduled arrival of the flight in 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 vanishing from radar screens. The last words that Malaysian air traffic controllers heard, at 01:19, were those of the co-pilot saying "All right, good night".

Timeline of disappearance

Signs of life

New Scientist reported that, prior to the aircraft's disappearance, two 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, the acting Transport Minister of Malaysia refuted the details of The Wall Street Journal report stating that the final engine transmission was received at 01:07, prior to the flight's disappearance from secondary radar. Follow-up reporting by Reuters suggested that the evidence may have taken the form of "pings" sent by the aircraft's communication systems, and possibly not data (telemetry reports).

The Wall Street Journal 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, although a company executive did add that "keep-alive message" continued to be sent after air traffic control first lost contact and that these "ping signals" could be analysed to help estimate the aircraft's location.

On 14 March, The Independent stated, based on the continued pinging by the aircraft, that it could not have disintegrated in mid-flight or had other sudden catastrophic occurrence: "all signals – the pings to the satellite, the data messages and the transponder – would be expected to stop at the same time". After the attacks of 11 September 2001, when three of the hijacked aircraft had their transponders switched off, there was a call for automated transponders; however, no changes were made as aviation experts opted for a flexible control, in case resetting was required due to malfunction or an electrical emergency.

According to Chinese media, relatives heard ringing tones when calling to the passengers. However, these were discounted as Flight 370 was not equipped with a base station that some airlines offer for in-flight cellphone contact, and the distance from a transmission tower, flight altitude, and shielding by the aircraft body all made possible transmissions extremely unlikely.

Estimated route

On 11 March, it was reported that military radar indicated the aircraft had 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 distanced himself from the report saying it should not be misinterpreted. According to the Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Transport, Pham Quy Tieu, "We informed Malaysia on the day we lost contact with the flight that we 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, 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. None of the countries on a possible northerly flight route – China, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and India – stated that there was any evidence that the aircraft ever entered their airspace.

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. With such a reprogramming the aircraft would make a banked turn at a comfortable angle of around 20 degrees and the passengers would not feel anything unusual. The sudden cessation of all on-board communication led to suppositions that the plane's disappearance may have been due to foul play.

Presumed lost

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.

Malaysia Airlines announced it was assumed "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the flight had been lost and there were no survivors.Malaysia Airlines sent a SMS to the families of the passengers announcing that it was assumed "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the flight had been lost and there were no survivors. Inmarsat stated that their analysis had been based on measurements of the Doppler effect of the "ping" transmissions.

Search

Location

Early search efforts generated multiple false leads. 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°42′N 105°38′E / 6.7°N 105.63°E / 6.7; 105.63 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. 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, with an area of 600,000 km (230,000 sq mi) between Australia and the Kerguelen Islands lying more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) from Perth to be searched by ships and aircraft of Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

It emerged on 17 March that the last ACARS message at 01:07 did not mean the system was turned off at that moment, as had been previously suggested. Malaysian authorities said ACARS had been switched off sometime between 01:07 and the next scheduled ACARS contact, due at 01:37.

On 20 March, the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, announced in parliament that two objects that might be related to the aircraft, one of them 24 m (79 ft) long, had been spotted by a satellite in the Indian Ocean on 16 March, 2,500 km (1,600 mi) south-west of Perth (coordinates 44°03′02″S 91°13′27″E / 44.05056°S 91.22417°E / -44.05056; 91.22417), where the ocean depth could reach 5,000 metres (16,000 ft). An Australian Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft arrived in the area at 02:50 UTC. The Australian naval ship HMAS Success, Myanmar naval vessels, a United States Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, two more Orions (one Australian and one from New Zealand), and a Lockheed C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft were also tasked to the area. Two Chinese military Ilyushin Il-76 cargo aircraft joined the search the following day. and two Japanese Orions arrived at RAAF Base Pearce to assist. Civilian aircraft and ships started assisting in the search;

On 22 March, a Chinese satellite image was released, from four days earlier, of potential debris, at a location about 120 km (75 mi) south west of the area shown in the earlier images. The object's size was estimated at 22.5 m × 13 m (74 ft × 43 ft), at coordinates 44°57′29″S 90°13′43″E / 44.95806°S 90.22861°E / -44.95806; 90.22861, near one of the 45×90 points approximately 3,170 km (1,970 mi) south west of Perth.

International participation

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, Chinese authorities activated the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, a 15 member international organisation whose purpose is to "...provide a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural or man-made disasters through Authorized Users."

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. The country of destination, China, deployed 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. Furthermore, several of its military satellites were retasked. Later, China deployed two Ilyushin Il-76s to RAAF Base Pearce near Perth to assist the search in the southern Indian Ocean. Other nations provided the following assets:

• Australia: air force P-3 maritime patrol aircraft; navy ship HMAS Success and four long-range civilian jets dispatched after possible debris sightings.
• 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.
• France: a team from the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA).
• 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 228, air force C-130 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 Lockheed 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 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 Indian Ocean all previously-deployed ships and aircraft stood down and the armed forces' Information Fusion Centre activated.
• South Korea: navy P-3 Orion and air force C-130 Hercules aircraft.
• Taiwan: 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. HMS Echo – a hydrographic survey ship.
• United States: 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 analysed by the public with the help of crowdsourcing site Tomnod.

Aircraft

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 is 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 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 two serious accidents, in 2008 with British Airways Flight 38 and in 2013 with Asiana Airlines Flight 214. With all on board presumed dead, this is the fouth hull loss and worst accident to occur on the 777 to-date, after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in 2013.

Passengers and crew

People on board by nationality

Nationality	Number
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 (15 nations and regions)	239

Malaysia Airlines released the names and nationalities of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members, based on the flight manifest.

Passengers

Two-thirds of the 227 passengers 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. Of the total, 20 were employees of Freescale Semiconductor, a company based in Austin, Texas – 12 were from Malaysia and 8 from China.

Under a 2007 agreement, Tzu Chi – a "foreign" Buddhist organisation tolerated by the PRC government – immediately sent specially-trained teams to Beijing and Malaysia to give emotional support to passengers' families. Malaysia Airlines also sent a similar team of caregivers and volunteers. The carrier 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. Other family members chose to remain in China, fearing they would feel too isolated in Malaysia. The airline offered an ex gratia condolence payment of US$5,000 to the family of each passenger, but relatives considered the conditions unacceptable and asked the airline to review them.

Crew

All the crew members were Malaysian citizens. The flight's captain was 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah of 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.

Investigation

Timeline of response

International participation

On 8 March, 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. In addition, the United States National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB) announced in a press release on the same day that a team of investigators had been sent along with technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to offer assistance in the investigation. The country that would lead the investigation would not be determined until the missing aircraft was found. Because a formal (ICAO-sanctioned) investigation had not yet started, co-operation and co-ordination between involved parties could suffer, there being "a risk that crucial early detective work could be hampered, and potential clues and records lost", according to experts.

On 11 March, Chinese authorities activated the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, a 15 member organisation consisting of international space agencies whose purpose is to "...provide a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural or man-made disasters through Authorized Users."

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. United States and Malaysian officials were reviewing every passenger named on the manifest in addition to the two passengers who were confirmed as possessing stolen passports. 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.

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.

China Daily reported that there was also a passenger on the boarding list provided by Malaysia Airlines whose name did not match the passport owner's name and passport number.

Upon the realisation that the aircraft may have been hijacked by a skilled individual, suspicion also fell briefly on a passenger who worked as flight engineer for a Swiss jet charter company.

Pilots

Police searched the homes of the pilot and co-pilot. CNN reported that police investigated a flight simulator in the pilot's home and that US Intelligence officials were leaning towards the view that those in the cockpit had been responsible for the aircraft's disappearance.

Cargo

On 17 March, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, without disclosing the flight manifest, that the aircraft was carrying 3 to 4 tonnes of mangosteens, and 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 the regulations.

Criticism and response

Public communication from Malaysian officials regarding the loss of the flight was initially beset with confusion.

• Malaysian authorities initially reported that four passengers used stolen passports to board the aircraft before settling on two – one Italian and one Austrian.
• Malaysia abruptly widened the search area to the west on 9 March, and only later explained that military radar had detected the aircraft turning back. This was later formally denied by Rodzali Daud.
• Malaysian authorities visited the homes of pilot Zaharie and co-pilot Fariq on 15 March, during which they took away a flight simulator belonging to Zaharie. Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said this was the first police visit to those homes. On 17 March, the government contradicted this by saying police first visited the pilots' homes the day following the flight's disappearance, although this had been previously denied.
• On 16 March, Malaysia's acting transport minister contradicted the prime minister's account on the timing of the final data and communications received. Najib Razak said that the ACARS system was switched off at 01:07, while Hishammuddin said that the last ACARS transmission was received at 01:07, and the transmission expected at 01:37 was missed.
• Three days after saying that the aircraft was not transporting anything hazardous, Malaysia Airlines' chief executive Ahmad said that potentially dangerous lithium batteries were on board.

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. MAS was criticised for not disclosing its cargo manifest.

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, a point echoed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry days later: "Help all sides in the search to make their search more effective and accurately targeted". 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. The Washington Post said that had MAS installed system upgrade called Swift that had helped locate Air France 447, investigators would have had critical information about the aircraft even after the ACARS system and the transponder had gone dead.

Criticism was also levelled at the delay of the search efforts. A report in The Wall Street Journal suggested that British satellite company Inmarsat had provided officials 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. Responding to criticisms that information about satellite signals had not been made available earlier, Malaysia Airlines said that it was critical that the raw satellite signals were verified and analysed "so that their significance could be properly understood". While this was being done, the airline was unable to publicly confirm their existence.

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.

Notes

1. MH is the IATA designator and MAS is the ICAO designator. The flight was also marketed as China Southern Airlines Flight 748 (CZ748) through a codeshare.
2. The aircraft is a Boeing 777-200ER (for Extended Range) model; Boeing assigns a unique customer code for each company that buys one of its aircraft, which is applied as an infix in the model number at the time the aircraft is built. The code for Malaysia Airlines is "H6", hence "777-2H6ER".
3. The manifest released by Malaysia Airlines listed an Austrian and an Italian. These were subsequently identified as two Iranian nationals who boarded Flight 370 using stolen passports.
4. Includes 38 passengers and all 12 crew.

References

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6. ^ 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.
7. Grudgings, Stuart. "Malaysia Airlines plane crashes in South China Sea with 239 people aboard: report". Retrieved 8 March 2014.
8. Tasnim Lokman (9 March 2014). "MISSING MH370: Indonesia helps in search for airliner". New Straits Times. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
9. ^ Michael Forsythe and Michael S. Schmidt (14 March 2014), Sharp Changes in Altitude and Course After Jet Lost Contact The New York Times.
10. ^ Andy Pasztor (12 March 2014), Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours The Wall Street Journal.
11. ^ Bob Orr (13 March 2014), Did Malaysian plane fly toward Indian Ocean after last contact? CBS News.
12. Malaysian PM's full statement The Guardian 15 March 2014
13. ^ "Number of countries in SAR operations increases to 26". The Star. 18 March 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
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15. Pearson, Michael. "Flight 370 passenger's relative: 'All lives are lost'". CNN.com. Retrieved 24 March 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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External links

• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
• Updates regarding MH370 Malaysia Airlines
• Coverage from the New Straits Times
• Meteorological and oceanographic maps and charts relevant to Flight 370
• NOAA Bathymetry & Digital Elevation Models (ocean depth in metres)
• 777-200 Airplane Characteristics Technical information from Boeing
• Location history of MH370 on Flightradar24.com
• SkyVector aeronautical chart showing jet airways

• Aviation
• China
• Malaysia

• Current events from March 2014
• 2014 in China
• 2014 in Malaysia
• Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 777
• Airliner accidents and incidents with an unknown cause
• Aviation accidents and incidents in 2014
• Malaysia Airlines accidents and incidents
• Missing aircraft