Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (Flight number: MH370), was an international regularly scheduled passenger flight between Malaysia and China, operated by carrier Malaysia Airlines. The aircraft was a Boeing 777-200ER (Registration: 9M-MRO). It departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41 a.m (local time) on 8 March 2014, and was expected to land at Beijing Capital International Airport at 6.30 a.m. the same day. Flight MH370 lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at approximately 1.19 a.m., less than one hour after taking off. The flight was carrying a total number of 227 passengers, including two infants, and twelve crew members. The aircraft was last reported flying over the South China Sea, halfway between the east coast of the Malay peninsula and the coast of southern Vietnam, at the time contact with air traffic control was lost. It was later disclosed that military radar had tracked then lost signals from the aircraft indicating that it had flown west, and had travelled in a corridor out to the Andaman Sea by 2.15 a.m., before further reflective signals were picked up by commercial satellite Inmarsat stationed over the Indian Ocean, indicating it had flown in an arc either north over Thailand or south towards the Indian Ocean, ending at 8.11 a.m. Further analysis of the satellite data, confirmed that it flew in a southerly direction crashing in the Indian Ocean, 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth, Australia. Satellites images have detected over 300 pieces of possible debris in the search area.

The management of the search by the Malaysian authorities was criticized by relatives of the missing passengers and by security and aviation experts, for releasing conflicting information and for not expediently allocating resources outside of the South China Sea search area.

On 24 March 2014, the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak formally announced that flight MH370 had ended in the southern Indian Ocean. No survivors had been located.