Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has
been lost in the southern Indian
Ocean, the Malaysian prime minister
has said, following analysis of data
by British satellite operator
Inmarsat. However, its precise
whereabouts and the chain of events
remain a mystery.
What do we know about the
plane's disappearance?
00:41, 8 March: Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH370 departed from Kuala
Lumpur International Airport on
Saturday, 8 March (16:41 GMT, 7
March), and was due to arrive in
Beijing at 06:30 (22:30 GMT).
Malaysia Airlines says the plane lost
contact less than an hour after
takeoff. No distress signal or
message was sent.
01:07 : The plane sent its last ACARS
transmission - a service that allows
computers aboard the plane to "talk"
to computers on the ground. Some
time afterwards, it was silenced and
the expected
01:37 transmission was
not sent.
01:19 : The co-pilot was heard to say
"All right, good night" to Malaysian
air traffic control.
A few minutes later, the plane's
transponder, which communicates
with ground radar, was shut down as
the aircraft crossed from Malaysian
air traffic control into Vietnamese
airspace over the South China Sea.
01:21 : The Civil Aviation Authority of
Vietnam said the plane failed to
check in as scheduled with air traffic
control in Ho Chi Minh City.
02:15 : Malaysian military radar
plotted Flight MH370 at a point south
of Phuket island in the Strait of
Malacca, west of its last known
location. Thai military radar logs
also confirmed that the plane turned
west and then north over the
Andaman sea.
08:11 : (00:11 GMT, 8 March) Seven
hours after contact with air traffic
control was lost, a satellite above
the Indian Ocean picked up data from
the plane in the form of an automatic
"handshake" between the aircraft
and a ground station.
This information, disclosed a week
after the plane's disappearance,
suggested the jet was in one of two
flight corridors, one stretching
north between Thailand and
Kazakhstan, the other south between
Indonesia and the southern Indian
Ocean.
08:19: There is some evidence of a
further "partial handshake" at this
time between the plane and a ground
station but experts are still working
on analysing this data, the Malaysian
transport minister said on 25 March.
09:15: (01:15 GMT) This would have
been the next scheduled automatic
contact between the ground station
and the plane but there was no
response from the aircraft.
What happened next?
The plane's planned route would have
taken it north-eastwards, over
Cambodia and Vietnam, and the
initial search focused on the South
China Sea, south of Vietnam's Ca Mau
peninsula.
But evidence from a military radar,
revealed later, suggested the plane
had suddenly changed from its
northerly course to head west. So
the search, involving dozens of ships
and planes, then switched to the sea
west of Malaysia.
Further evidence revealed on
Saturday 15 March by the Malaysian
Prime Minister Najib Razak suggested
the jet was deliberately diverted by
someone on board about an hour
after takeoff.
After MH370's last communication
with a satellite was disclosed, a
week after the plane's
disappearance, the search was
expanded dramatically to nearly
three million square miles, from
Kazakhstan in the north to vast
areas of the remote southern Indian
Ocean.
Then, on 20 March, Australian search
teams revealed they were
investigating two objects spotted on
satellite images in the southern
Indian Ocean and sent long-range
surveillance planes to the area,
followed by further sightings . An
Australian ship arrived in the area
and further vessels are on their way.
At 1400 GMT on 24 March the
Malaysian prime minister announced
that following further analysis of
satellite data it was beyond doubt
that the plane had gone down in this
part of the ocean.
This was based on Inmarsat and UK
air accident investigators' analysis
of the data relayed between the
plane and ground station by
satellite.
More potential debris was spotted by
satellites but on 28 March the main
search area was moved 1,100km (684
miles) to the north-east and closer
to Australia, following further
analysis of the speed of the plane
and its maximum range.
Malaysian officials said that the
debris could still be consistent with
the new search area as ocean
currents may have moved floating
objects. However, no debris has yet
been verified as being from the
plane.
Who was on board?
Muhammad Razahan Zamani (bottom
right), 24, and his wife Norli Akmar
Hamid, 33, were on their honeymoon
on the missing flight. The phone is
being held by his stepsister, Arni
Marlina
The 12 crew members were all
Malaysian, led by pilots Captain
Zaharie Ahmed Shah, 53 and 27-
year-old co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid.
Police have searched their homes and
a flight simulator has been taken
from the captain's home and
reassembled for examination at
police headquarters.
It is now believed that co-pilot Hamid
spoke the last words heard from the
plane, "All right, good night" - but it
it not clear whether this was before
or after the Aircraft Communications
Addressing and Reporting System
(ACARS) had been deliberately
switched off.
There were 227 passengers , including
153 Chinese and 38 Malaysians,
according to the manifest . Seven
were children.
Other passengers came from Iran,
the US, Canada, Indonesia,
Australia, India, France, New
Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and
the Netherlands.
Two Iranian men were found to be
travelling on false passports. But
further investigation revealed 19-
year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad
Mehrdad and Delavar Seyed
Mohammadreza, 29 were headed for
Europe via Beijing, and had no
apparent links to terrorist groups.
Among the Chinese nationals was a
delegation of 19 prominent artists
who had attended an exhibition in
Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia Airlines said there were
four passengers who checked in for
the flight but did not show up at the
airport.
The family members of those on board
were informed by in person, by phone
and by text message on 24 March that
the plane had been lost.
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