With the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 remains a mystery, the whole world is still holding its breath. Some questions remain unanswered; What happened to the plane? What happened to its 239 passengers? Are they still alive or are they all dead? Was that an act of terrorism? A mechanical defect? Human factor or simply an act of God? Is there anything supernatural about that? Will the plane be found and if so, when? Of course, one would also expect a lot of conspiracy theories in such an incident.
Whenever a mystery of this magnitude arises, there is a temptation to turn such an event into an x files investigation. In this article, we look at the true facts surrounding the Malaysia Airlines Missing Flight MH370. We’ll try to answer some of the questions you may have. Please try again to know more.
• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Saturday at 12:41 pm (local time) en route to Beijing on March 8th. The weather conditions were favorable.
• The Boeing 777-200’s planned route was expected to fly over the South China Sea and Vietnam routes on a journey of approximately 4,350 kilometers.
• MH370 was scheduled to land in Beijing at 18:30 GMT (17:30 GMT) the same day.
• It was reported on March 11, 2014 that the Malaysian military determined that the plane had inexplicably deviated hundreds of miles west of its original flight path.
• 4 days later, on March. 15, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak also announced that MH370’s communications had been intentionally disabled, suggesting that the focus shifted to the crew and passengers following the discovery.
Missing flight MH370 passengers
• A total of 239 people were on board, including 12 crew members. 227 passengers came from 14 different nationalities. Five of them are younger than 5 years, including 2 infants.
• The total number of American (US) citizens on the plane was 3
• Freescale Semiconductor is an Austin-based technology company with 20 employees (12 from Malaysia, 8 from China) on flight MH370.
• It was also reported that four passengers with valid bookings for the flight never checked in, according to a statement from Malaysia Airlines on March 11.
A breakdown of nations and number of passengers MH370 is shown below:
China / Taiwan – 153 (including 1 infant)
Malaysia – 38
India – 5
Indonesia – 7
Australia – 6
France – 4
USA – 3 (including 1 infant)
New Zealand – 2
Ukraine – 2
Canada – 2
Iran – 2
Russia – 1
Netherlands – 1
Missing MAS plane: Among those on the flight
Stolen passports
And then there was a problem with the stolen passport
• Two Iranian passengers, Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad and Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, used stolen passports.
• Reza, 29, used the passport of Italian Luigi Maraldi, 37.
• 19-year-old Nourmohammadi used the passport of 30-year-old Austrian Christian Kozel.
The two Europeans lost their passports in Thailand in 2013. Thailand is a well-known hub for fake passports. The international police (Interpol) reported the passports in their database as stolen, but they were not checked before the flight. However, the two Iranians are not believed to have any terrorist connections.
The Malaysia Airlines Missing Flight MH370 crew
• The all-Malaysian crew was led by Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, an 18,365 flight hour veteran who has been with Malaysia Airlines since 1981. First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid, 27, joined the airline in 2007 and has 2,763 flight hours. Fariq and another pilot went to the trouble of getting two women in the cockpit aboard their plane to fly from Phuket, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur some time ago. Despite this, both pilots have been described as respectable, community-oriented people.
More facts about the missing flight
• The Boeing 777-200ER was fully loaded with up to eight hours’ worth of fuel.
• The last transmission from the MH370’s Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was at 1.07 am when it was intentionally switched off.
• It was also determined that the transponder was switched off intentionally at 1:21 am.
• In the cockpit, the last words were “All right, good night” after ACARS was deactivated.
• At around 1:30 am, air traffic controllers in Subang, outside Kuala Lumpur, reported that they had lost sight of MH370 and set their last coordinates to 06 55 15n 103 34 43e.
• Malaysian military radar indicates missing. The jet climbed to 45,000 feet – higher than the approved limit of a Boeing 777 – and turned sharply west before descending unevenly to 23,000 feet on the island of Penang. It then climbed back up to 35,000 feet in a northwesterly direction toward the Indian Ocean.
• According to the airline, radar trackers spotted MH370 over the tiny island of Pulau Perak in the Malacca Straits at around 2:40 am.
• MH370’s last ping was sent at 8:11 am – seven hours and 31 minutes after takeoff.
• Chinese seismologists recorded a “seabed ‘event’ and an ‘earthquake wave’ in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam at 2:55 am local time on March 8.
• Overnight the number of countries involved in the search was expanded from 14 to 25, including countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Indonesia and Australia.
• No country or individual knew where MH370 is located.
Timeline of events surrounding the disappearance of Flight MH370
– March 8, 12:41 The aircraft with 239 passengers departs from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia bound for Beijing China.
– 1:07 am ACARS transmits its regular half-hourly data reports on the jet’s engines and other data to the airline.
– 01:19 Someone believed to be the co-pilot makes the final voice comm from the cockpit and tells the air traffic controllers “All right, good night”.
– 0120 The transponder shuts down and removes the aircraft’s identification on commercial radar systems.
– 0137 An ACARS data transmission is due but never sent a character or signal.
– 2:14 am The aircraft is last seen on military radar.
– 8:11 a.m. A satellite records a weak, final “ping” from the disabled ACARS system. A wide arc of the jet’s possible location extends from Kazakhstan to the southern Indian Ocean.
– Approximately 8:40 am The estimated time until the jet’s fuel supply is complete.