The eighth of March 2022 marks the 8-year anniversary of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a tragedy known by many as one of Malaysia’s unsolvable aviation mysteries in recent times. Below is a chronology of its disappearance from 2014 till today:
March 8, 2014: MH370 departed the runway at 12.41 a.m.. The aircraft disappeared from the radar 40 minutes into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board. A search and rescue operation was conducted in the South China sea.
March 9, 2014 : The search location was expanded to the Straits of Malacca after it was confirmed the plane had diverged back.
March 15, 2014: Inmarsat confirms MH370 was still flying 7 hours after it lost contact. The company publishes the last known positions of MH370.
Then-Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the last time the plane communicated with a possible satellite came from one of two corridors, The Northern Corridor of the Kazakhstan border and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand or the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
March 18, 2014: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) started an aerial search for MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean till the 16th of April 2014.
April 1, 2014 : The Australian Government launched the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) to carry out the search operation of MH370.
The Transport Ministry issued a full transcript of conversations between MH370 pilots and air traffic controllers, no abnormality was found.
April 4, 2014 : JACC said the search for MH370 was entering a new phase with a search done on the seafloor in the southern Indian Ocean to detect a signal from the MH370 black box.
April 28, 2014: The air search ended after failing to see a single piece of debris in 4.6 million square kilometers of the ocean.
August 28, 2014: Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai announced that Australia and Malaysia bear the estimated new phase of phases estimated at RM153.28mil.
October 21, 2014 : Malaysian contracted ship “Go Phoenix” joined the search operation with Fugro Discovery and Furgro Equator.
2015
Jan 29, 2015: Head director of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman formally declared MH370 an accident and says all 239 people on board are presumed dead.
Feb 25, 2015: Malaysia talked with China over the potential increase of search boats for MH370. The MH370 SAR operation continued in the remote areas of the Indian Ocean, covering over 24,000 square kilometers which are equal to about 40 percent of the main search area, JACC said.
March 8, 2015: Australia’s then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott doubles the area of the underwater search to 120,000 square kilometers. Relatives of Chinese passengers who perished protested outside the walls of the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.
Jun 18, 2015: Then-Minister of Transport, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said Malaysia will continue the second phase of the MH370 search mission with only two vessels traveling to isolated areas in the Indian Ocean. The first phase covers over 52,000 square kilometers completed in the same month.
July 29, 2015: A wing part known as a flaperon found on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar, is the first piece of the plane to be recovered. Airbus confirmed the piece was part of MH370. Since then, 27 pieces have been found in South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Tanzania.
2016
July 22, 2016: Malaysia, China, and Australia decided to postpone the search operation of MH370 when searching in an area of 120,000 square kilometers was completed.
July 28, 2016: Data from flight captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home simulator shows it was used to plot a course to the southern Indian Ocean, bolstering speculation he ditched the plane in a premeditated plot.
However, officials in Kuala Lumpur declared that Malaysian police and the FBI’s technical experts had found nothing to suggest he was planning to hijack the flight after closely examining his flight simulator.
September 16, 2016: Two of the 24 fragments of the aircraft that were found in South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius, and Tanzania were confirmed to be apart from MH370.
November 2, 2016: ATSB published the MH370 – First Principles Review.
Dec 20, 2016: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said MH370 is unlikely to be in the 120,000 square kilometers initial search area, it is more likely in an area immediately to the north.
2017
Jan 17, 2017: The search operation of MH370 on the seabed in the Indian Ocean was suspended, according to three-party statements – Malaysia, Australia, and China.
Jan 19, 2017: Malaysia offered cash rewards to private parties for ‘substantial information or evidence’ about the location of the wreckage.
April 21, 2017: The CSIRO released a report saying the most likely location of the jet is a new 25,000 square kilometers area, north of the original 120,000 square kilometer search area.
3rd October 2017: ATSB published a Final Report entitled The Operational Search for MH370.
2018
January 3, 2018: The search resumes after Malaysia entered into a ‘no find, no fee’ arrangement with US company Ocean Infinity, with up to $70 million offered if the wreckage is found
March 3, 2018: Malaysia said the new search will likely end in June, as families of passengers mark four years since the plane disappeared
June 8, 2018 : Ocean Infinity ended the Underwater Search for MH370.
June 28, 2018: Geoscience Australia released the MH370 Underwater Search Data.
July 30, 2018: Malaysia released Safety Investigation Report for Malaysia Airline Boeing B777-200ER as closure into the aviation mystery, but say the search may resume and it cannot be the final report until wreckage is found. They said they did not believe the pilot was behind the change in direction and ‘unlawful interference by a third party could not be ruled out.
August 20, 2018: Panel Debris of MH370 was found in Madagascar by Fisherman.
2019- present
March 3, 2019: Malaysian Transport Minister said searches will resume if independent companies are interested and valid data on the disappearance of the aircraft is uncovered.
March 7, 2020: Richard Godfrey (with Bobby Ulich, Victor Iannello, and Andrew Banks) published The Final Resting Place of MH370.
January 1, 2021: Richard Godfrey published MH370 Floating Debris – Drift Analysis.
March 22, 2021: Dr. Robert Westphal published Geocaching in the Ionosphere – WSPRnet Technology.
September 9, 2021: Richard Godfrey published WSPRnet Propagation Technical Analysis.
November 30, 2021: Richard Godfrey published his report on the location of MH370.
February 17, 2022: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau acknowledged the findings of Richard Godfrey and is assigning Geoscience Australia for validation. A finalized review of the paper will be released to the public in the coming weeks.
February 22, 2022: Minister of Transport, Datuk Seri Ir Dr. Wee Ka Siong, believes that Malaysia cannot act unilaterally in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 aircraft despite claims of new leads on the location of the aircraft based on the research documents by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).-TVS
