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
Cynthia Perez
One of the most interesting and bizarre conundrums out there. Where did this plane full of over 200 people go? Where’s the rest of the plane and were there really no survivors? Was it actually hijacked? There’s so many unanswered questions that make you think how something as big as this could still be unknown. Imagine your loved ones getting on a plane and never landing where they were supposed to, that’s a scary situation where you would never see them again without even a single precise explanation. Really great article discussing many possibilities surrounding the disappearance of Malaysian Airline Flight MH370.
Aaron Peters
It’s really heartbreaking that the families could never bury any of them since they just up and disappeared, and likely died far out in the Indian Ocean. It’s been over 5 years now, I think it’s a slim possibility for them to uncover why the plane would make such an abrupt turn into the Indian Ocean, and what really happened on board the plane will likely remain a mystery.
Kenneth Gilley
It is so tragic when people die without leaving a trace of what happened to them. It is not only tragic for them, but tragic for their family members as well. We may never find out what happened to flight MH370. This incident is especially strange given the technology we have to prevent accidents like this from happening. This was a very interesting article.
Marco Monte de Oca
I had never heard about this plane mysteriously disappearing and I was shocked when I finished reading this. The Malaysian Flight MH370 is a tragic story that seems to have no answers to its many questions. We may never know what truly happened on board that plane. I do find it odd that the last thing air control heard from the plane was, “Good night Malaysia, three seven zero”. Did the pilots mean that they were not going to talk to air control again or is that regular communication between the pilot and air control?
Hector Membreno
This is a crazy incident that does make very much since considering all the modern technology we have access to. It is just sad how 239 families are left completely puzzled on how there family members died or if they are even dead. The Malaysian Flight MH370 is a tragic story that seems will forever be a mystery as Australia was only able to find a few pieces of the aircraft in different places.
Juan Arceo
This moment will always be one of the biggest mysteries that till this day is still not certain as to why it happened. This event is very similar to another plane accident dealing with Jenny Rivera who’s plane crashed into a mountain in Mexico and there were no remains of her and any other members on that plane but some articles of clothing and documents were still able to be picked up from the scene. It doesn’t matter what you think happened on the Malaysian flight MH370, if it was a hijacking or an unfortunate accident, the families of those that were lost from this flight will still be grieving this loss and can only hope that they get an answer soon.
Olivia Tijerina
The article describes a critical event that took place in the recorded time of March 8, 2014 flight MH370 had disappeared off the radar. Therefore, 239 lives departed and never came back in arrival. The article points to suggest of the fast improvements towards plane travel is greatly absorbed as a chance to solve the event of flight MH370 but mainly to prevent yet another.
Sebastian Azcui
It is amazing to think that this plane completely disappeared. The Malaysian Flight MH370 is a mystery in the world as no one knows where it is and what happened to it. Many theories arose with this like aliens or other supernatural things, and what could’ve gone wrong with the plane and what actually happened. 239 people were lost and are believed dead as there are no signs of them or no one has seen what happened. Very interesting article.
Amanda Uribe
This story always intrigued me. I followed news on this story for months. I hoped that they would find the plane and understand what happened to all of those people. It makes me wonder how so much evidence was just gone. The black box was never found, the radar just stopped working and the plane itself, just gone. Although it has been years, I hope they are able to find MH 370 and figure out what happened that terrible day.
Jose Maria Llano
It’s crazy to think that with todays technology we can find the plane. For something so big to just mysteriously disappear is just crazy to me. I remember seeing all of this on tv and experts couldn’t give a specific reason for the missing plane. The article does a great job talking about all the different parts of the search efforts. It is sad to see that all of this basically forgotten by most people and we still don’t have a concrete answer for the missing plane. I especially feel for the families that didn’t get closure from this.