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October 25, 2018

The Mystery Flight: Malaysian Airline Flight MH370

It was March 8, 2014, when 239 people boarded the Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 with absolutely no idea that their flight would be taking a very unexpected turn. The Malaysian airline departed from Kuala Lumpur Airport on route to Beijing, China, making its way over Cambodia and Vietnam on schedule and with no delays.1 While the airline was in flight, within an hour after takeoff, the airline went completely off radar; after that, no one knew what happened to flight MH370.2 Neither pilot nor co-pilot of the plane reported any problems to air traffic control during the beginning or throughout the remainder of the flight to Beijing. To this day, many do not know whether the pilots of the flight had anything to do with the disappearance of the airline.3 Research tells us that within less than an hour, Flight 370 lost all contact with air traffic control with absolutely no explanation. The last message ever heard from the airline was the pilot or co-pilot saying, “Good night Malaysian, three seven zero.” Then, one hour later after the final message sent to air traffic control, the airline went completely off military radar. In order for the flight to go completely off radar, the flight must have taken a different route or flown four hours more than scheduled. And according to the final radar image, the airline was last seen going the opposite direction from the original route.4 After being informed that the flight did in fact change its route to Beijing, many began to suspect that the airline was hijacked, either by a passenger or possibly by one or both of the pilots. Many also began to suspect that there was a possibility that the airline carried lithium batteries during the flight. Lithium batteries can cause any plane to catch on fire within the cargo and potentially cause the flight to crash land or land in airports that were not on route to the destination. This theory of Flight 370 made researchers believe that the airline did catch on fire due to lithium batteries and therefore caused the captain to change route, land in the nearest airport, and potentially go missing on the way to the nearest airport.5

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Crash Map | Search map for airline flight | April 9, 2014 | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

In 2014, Australia took responsibility for searching for the airline in the Indian Ocean with just the slightest idea where the airline might have crashed, landed, or sunk. Within the week of Australia’s search for the airline, the search widened by over 3 million square miles.6 After months of rigorous searching, debris of the plane was found in the water. It was on July 29, 2015, when a flap of the airline’s wing was found, miles away from where Australia’s search team was searching, on Reunion Island. The plane’s part was found by a group of volunteers cleaning a beach on St. Andre.7

Debris Alone May Not Solve Mystery of Malaysia Flight 370, Experts Say | French police carrying a piece of debris from the airline | July 30, 2015 | Island of Reunion | Courtesy of The New York Times

So, with the discovery of the flap, it leaves many wondering, where is flight MH370? How did the flight manage to crash, sink, or land with absolutely no clue as to how it did so? By December of 2015, the Australian search team widened the search even more. As of May 2016, three pieces of the airline have been found, and all in different places in the sea. But unfortunately enough, there has not been any more discoveries of the plane since then.8 After the pieces of the plane were found, the Malaysian government declared the disappearance of MH370 an accident with no survivors.9 The plane has yet to be discovered.

Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-8FZ | Airline taking flight | November 9, 2013 | Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It was March 8, 2014, when the souls of 239 people became one of the greatest mysteries of all time. The story of the Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 will always have society wondering what exactly happened to the flight and where is it located. And for every time the story of the Malaysian Airline Flight is told, people are going to be left thinking of all the possible theories that might have caused the disappearance of the plane. Until the mystery of the airline’s disappearance is solved, all 239 souls will finally be able to rest in peace and their families will no longer have to mourn over the mysterious deaths of their loved ones.

  1. Samuel Davey et al., Bayesian Methods in Search for MH370 (Springeropen Singapore, 2016), 7.
  2. Samuel Davey et al., Bayesian Methods in Search for MH370 (Springeropen Singapore, 2016), 7.
  3. Jenthro Mullen, “Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: What we know and don’t know,” CNN News, March 13, 2014, https://www.cnn.com/
  4. Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know,” BBC News, January 17, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/news.
  5.  Ruwantissa Abeyratne, “Flight MH370 and the Lithium Battery Theory,” Air Cargo World, May 2014.
  6. “Malaysia Airlines search: Jet already had turned before co-pilots ‘good night’ message,” Fox News, December 3, 2015, ” href=”https://www.foxnews.com/world/malaysia-airlines-search-jet-already-had-turned-before-co-pilots-good-night-message”>https://www.foxnews.com.
  7. Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know,” BBC News, January 17, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/news
  8. Lindsey M Bier, Sejin Park, and Michael J. Palenchar, “Framing the Flight MH370 Mystery: A Content Analysis of Malaysian, Chinese, and U.S. Media,” The International Communication Gazette, no. 2 (2018): 158.
  9. “Experts have confirmed that the debris found on Reunion Island last week was that of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 that went missing last year, Malaysia’s prime minister said Wednesday,”Malaysia Prime Minister, August 5, 2015, Associated Press, 2o15, Associated Press Video Collection, streaming video, 1:46, EBSCO (AN 16aaa4d0-387b-45fb-8d9b-73e660291a38).

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Malaysian Airline Flight MH370

Recent Comments

Karla Torres

A very well written and interesting article.

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25/10/2018

2:21 pm

Montserrat Moreno Ramirez

I found this article very interesting and well-written. it’s unbelievable how a plane just gets lost and no one knows what happened. It’s extremely sad that all the families didn’t have real closures with their loved ones. I hope that people eventually find the missing parts and finally know what happened and solve this mysterious case.

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25/10/2018

2:21 pm

Karla Xiomara Fernandez

I wonder how long it will take for this to be solved. Great article, thanks to the author!

reply

25/10/2018

2:21 pm

Mariana Valadez

It is crazy how a plane could just simply disappear like that. It is sad to think about the loved ones of everyone affected in this crash. I hope people will someday solve the mystery. This article kept me on my toes and intrigued the entire time. It was extremely well written and engaging. I hope families will receive closure one day.

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25/10/2018

2:21 pm

Janelle Larios

I remember hearing about this flight, but I never got into reading the story or the articles behind it. I don’t know why, but I had thought that the plane had been found. Pieces of the plane were found so I guess it was, but its sad that all those people on that plane had gone missing with no explanation behind it. I cant imagine something like this happening to me. Its a very scary thought to just disappear without a trace and nobody every finding you. I really hope that this somehow gets solved so that the families of these people can find peace within their lives.

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25/10/2018

2:21 pm

Adriana

An absolutely well written article. An unresolved mystery that till this day has us wondering what happened.

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26/10/2018

2:21 pm

Christopher Vasquez

What happened to flight MH370 is a tragedy. I think that the plane, whether because of human interference or a malfunction of the plane, crashed into the ocean. I wish we knew more about the flight, and I also wonder why, if there was distress, not one of the pilots called the distress signal in. The pilots should have reported any unusual activity that had occurred immediately. Whether it was the lithium batteries or a pilot take-over, one thing is for certain: we still have a long way to go before we discover the complete truth.

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26/10/2018

2:21 pm

Madison Downing

This was such a chilling article to read because it isn’t some scary story someone told you, it happened, and not too long ago. It’s insane how the last message they sent was normal but then later the plane was spotted flying the completely opposite direction it was suppose to. And not only that but then the parts of the plane was found stranded in random parts of the ocean. There are too many questions that need answers and it’s terrible to say that we probably won’t have them anytime soon…

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26/10/2018

2:21 pm

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