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
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
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.
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.
- Samuel Davey et al., Bayesian Methods in Search for MH370 (Springeropen Singapore, 2016), 7. ↵
- Samuel Davey et al., Bayesian Methods in Search for MH370 (Springeropen Singapore, 2016), 7. ↵
- Jenthro Mullen, “Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: What we know and don’t know,” CNN News, March 13, 2014, https://www.cnn.com/ ↵
- “Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know,” BBC News, January 17, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/news. ↵
- Ruwantissa Abeyratne, “Flight MH370 and the Lithium Battery Theory,” Air Cargo World, May 2014. ↵
- “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. ↵
- “Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know,” BBC News, January 17, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/news ↵
- 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. ↵
- “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). ↵
108 comments
Daniela Duran
This is such a tragic event. I had heard about this case before, but I did not know that they had actually found some remains of the plane! It is weird that the pieces were all found in different places, and I wonder how they know that they belonged to that particular plane. I feel very sorry for the families of these people, because not knowing must be even worse than being told a definite truth. No doubt that God will help them overcome their pain.
Nathalie Herrera
It is shocking to read that Flight MH370 with a total of 239 passengers mysteriously disappeared. That there is still no sighting of a single person, it is hard to wrap my head around this. The whole story itself leaves me with many questions, but I can only hope that they find those people which in turn can put an ease to their families. Overall, great read!
Tina S. Garza
Very interesting article. I heard about this airplane’s disappearance but I didn’t pay too much attention back then. Now that I read this article, I want more. I want answers and that’s that I’m just a reader. Can you imagine how the families of the ones on board must be?? I’m intrigued and I’ll be keeping up with story’s resolution if we ever get one. Thank you for writing such an important article. I’m sure the families of the passengers are greatful for keeping this story alive so that one day they might get some closure.
Martina Rodriguez
I can’t believe its already been four years since the plane went down, with all the theories still formulating about how exactly it met its doom it feels like it was a much shorter time ago. While there’s no proof that the pilots had anything to do with the tragedy, the last words from the co-pilot are rather eerie. While I don’t know anything about airlines, I’m surprised that the technology in the planes don’t have a way of continually tracking the planes as long as their running or even not running.
Julia Deais
This is a very well written article. It is crazy to me how the plane can just disappear the way it did. All I could think about while reading this article was all the families that had to be confused and worried about their loved ones that boarded that plane. Its so sad how they still have no idea what happened and probably will not know anytime soon.
Steven Hale
I remember when this flight went missing. In the news for weeks after, commentators had so many different theories with almost no points in common, so it was pretty clear that no one really had a clue what happened. After 9/11, my mind jumped to terrorism when I heard that a plane had disappeared, but terrorists have a political motive and want their attacks and demands to be seen by the public, so it seems unlikely that the plane was hijacked.
Reagan Meuret
I remember this story all over the news when it took place. It is amazing to me that during this day in age a plane can still just disappear from all radars on the Earth. It is sad that more than likely those 239 people died that day. I hope that one day that this mystery will be solved, and it may lead to an interesting added ending to this story!
Adam Portillo
Absolutely loved this article. I remember when this took place and I couldn’t help but wonder what really happened during the course of the flight. I remember I would spend time watching the news particularly the disappearance of the flight and start to theorize so much. I don’t think the mystery of the flight will ever resolved which is shocking because you’d think with all the technology it’d be possible. Great article.
Madison Guerra
This article was very interesting and mysterious. It makes me wonder what really happened and how the plane crashed. Since most theories believe that it crashed into the ocean i don’t think any more remains will be found and it might remain a mystery forever.
Christopher Hohman
Nice article. I remember this so well. It was so scary to thing that people can just go missing so easily like those people on flight 370. It is even stranger that so few wreckage pieces were located. One would think that even with a plane there would be a large debris field out there in the ocean somewhere, but no big pile of wreckage was ever found. It is also really weird that the pieces that were found were found years later. That is just so strange