MH370 10th Anniversary: The Biggest Aviation Mystery

DALLAS — Ten years ago, aviation witnessed its biggest mystery: The Malaysia Airlines (MH) Flight MH370 disappeared.

On March 8th, 2014, the Boeing 777-200(ER) with registration 9M-MRO was being prepared at Kuala Lumpur Airport (KUL) for Flight MH370 to Beijing Capital Airport (PEK) in China. This was supposed to be a routine flight, one of the two operated that day. Flight MH370 was scheduled to leave Kuala Lumpur at 00:35 local time with 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

At 00:41, flight MH370 left KUL bound for PEK; this was probably the last time someone saw that Boeing 777. The flight was routine till 01:22 when the plane was supposed to contact Ho Chi Minh Radar, but it disappeared from the Malaysian radar and never contacted Vietnamese Air Control. No one knew where the plane was; even the Vietnamese Air Traffic Controllers could not see the aircraft.

The Malaysian Primary Military Radar detected the plane for another hour, tracking it after deviations from the flight path and crossing the Malay Peninsula and the Andaman Sea, where it was finally lost at 200nm of Penang Island in Peninsular Malaysia.

At 02:40, the Vietnamese Air Traffic Controllers reported to MH that their aircraft had disappeared from the radars. Soon after, Malaysia started the search, which slowly became the most extensive multinational aircraft search in aviation history, conformed by Australia, China, France, Indonesia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The Aircraft Involved

The aircraft was a Boeing 777-2H6(ER) with Serial Number 28420, delivered to Malaysia Airlines on May 31, 2002. It was 11.8 years old at the moment of the accident, and MH was the sole owner of this plane.

The Boeing 777 involved in the accident was equipped with a pair of Roll-Royce Trent 892 and was configured to carry 282 passengers, 35 in business class and 247 in economy class, and only 19.5% of seats were empty on the flight MH370.

Search of the Flight MH370

As stated in the ICAO Annex 13, Malaysia, as the country of registration for Malaysia Airlines and the 9M-MRO, must be responsible for investigating and searching for the disappearance of flight MH370.

On March 17, 2014, when the analysis determined the aircraft went to the south, the Malaysian government asked the Australian government to assume responsibility for the search operations. 

Start of the Search, First Underwater Search

The search started the same day the aircraft disappeared. Coordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), it included 22 aircraft and 19 ships from eight countries (Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand). The search lasted until April 30, 2014. Approximately, the planes and vessels searched over 2.000.000 sq miles.

On March 24, sixteen days after the plane disappeared, the Malaysian Prime Minister announced that the search changed from Search and Rescue to Search and Recovery. 

On May 5, 2014, Australia agreed with Malaysia and China to start an underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean with support from Malaysia and China.

For this second phase, Geoscience Australia provided specialist advice in Bathymetry and sonar imagery; with this, the survey scanned 80.000 square miles of seafloor before being canceled in December 2014.

In October 2014, the Malaysian, Chinese, and Australian governments committed to search for a new area of 46,000 square miles. This time, the team comprised four vessels with sensors, sonars, and cameras to find the aircraft debris on the seafloor. After two and a half years of searching the plane in this zone, the three governments announced the suspension of the search in January 2017.

Last Official Search at the Moment

In October 2017, the American company Ocean Infinity offered a new search plan, which the Malaysian government approved with only one condition: they would pay for the search if they found the plane. After searching 43,000 square miles for the aircraft in May 2018, the Malaysian government decided to end the search in June 2018 without any results.

At the moment of writing this article, this was the last attempt to find the aircraft. In March 2024, the Malaysian government said they would ask the Australian government to start a new search, but they are asking for specific or credible evidence to begin the search again. The Malaysian government also said that if Ocean Infinity starts a new search, the condition will be the same: they will not pay for the search if they do not find it.

Investigation

Following the disappearance of Flight MH370, Malaysia created a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) together with four other countries' specialists (The USA, France, The United Kingdom, and China). The team was divided into four groups: Airworthiness, Operations, Medical, and human factors.

Ten years after the accident, there is no answer about what happened. Malaysia released its final report, which offers no causes and conclusions. 

There are a lot of speculation causes, but as said in the Malaysian government's final report, there is insufficient information to determine the causes or what happened that day.

Marine Debris: Flaperon, Part from the Stabilizer and wing

Not too many, but three parts of Flight MH370 have been found so far.

A Flaperon is a control surface located on the wing. This device combines the functions of the flaps and ailerons, providing roll control as an aileron and increasing lift and drag as a flap.

This was the first part of the MH Boeing 777 to be found. It was discovered in July 2015 in Saint-André, Reunion, approximately 2,500 miles from the underwater search zone. The flaperon was sent to France, and the government confirmed in September 2015 that the flaperon belonged to the missing plane.

In December 2015, a grey fragment was found on a beach in Mozambique, but it was reported in March 2016, when it was sent to Australia to be examined by experts who confirmed the fragment belonged to a flap track fairing of the missing Boeing 777.

In February 2016, a part labeled “No Step” was found in Mozambique. The plane fragment was sent to Australia for investigation, and the experts confirmed that it belonged to the 9M-MRO's horizontal stabilizer. This fragment was found on a beach 1,200 miles from where the flaperon was found.

Engine Cowling

In March 2016, a very recognizable Roll Royce Trent 892 fragment was found in Mossel Bay, South Africa.

The day the MH Boeing 777 was lost started the biggest mystery in aviation history, which remains unsolved ten years later. Without discovering the aircraft wreckage, all the questions will remain unanswered, but there is one big question: “How did a plane like the Boeing 777 disappear?”