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
Kathyleen Lauriano
Ive actually never heard about this until now. Mysterious things like this are very interesting because many people come up with different reasons as to why it happened. It is sad that many families will never know what really happened to their loved ones. I found this article very interesting and wish that we knew what happened to the plane. It was well written, Great job!
Fernando
Really good article… I never knew the plane was never found, it’s so heartbreaking to read that their families will never have the closure of knowing how their loved ones died. Honestly such a horrible situation and I hope one day the mystery is solved, and the victim’s families voids are filled.
Jose Fernandez
This is a very sad story and it is one of the biggest mysteries of the century. It amazes me that with all the technology we have available, we still can’t find out what happened to the plane. The article is very well written and organized. I always enjoy reading about mysteries and conspiracies, so I think this is a great topic for an article. Great job!
Daniel Linstead
I find these types of things so intriguing. There are conspiracies about a lot of different things in the world. I think the hardest thing about reading this story is the families of the flight. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that a plane, which we have all this technology to see where planes are but it just disappears. I just don’t get it.
Megan Copeland
Every time I hear this story it gets crazier each time. How can a plane just disappear without leaving a trace? If the plane would have crashed landed you would think that someone would have witnessed something. I feel so bad for the families of the victims on this flight because they were not able to get closure on what happened to their loved ones. They probably want some answers, and so far no one has been able to give them any.
Maxx Arizmendi
The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 is one of the most interesting mysteries. No one knows its whereabouts and how the plane disappeared. I didn’t know that the plane went in the opposite direction of its original flight, and that the pilot’s last words were “Good night.” What the pilot said was pretty suspicious, since it was possibly a hijacker that took control of the plane. It’s interesting as to how there are so many conspiracy theories about the disappearance of Flight 370. This article was a great read.
William Ward
I only ever heard about this event during the weeks after, but it was not long before it had completely dropped from the media. Although only a few pieces of the plane were recovered, I wonder what exactly happened to the poor people that were on board. Maybe some of the conspiracies about this event are true, but maybe the world will never truly know.
Hailey Stewart
Mysteries like this are always intriguing, especially when they involve 239 people! I can’t imagine the distress of those who were expecting their loved ones to land safely. I would like to learn more about why the lithium batteries were on board. Of course the big question about foul-play was posed, and I interpreted the quote from the pilot saying “Good night” to their passengers to be very ominous. Great read!
Eluterio
It is sad that they were never found, to bring closure to the families. Many questions remain unanswered. Hopefully someday more evidence surfaces to bring peace to those who lost someone on that flight. This is a very well written article.
Jasmine Rocha
This was one of the biggest tragedies and mistery of the modern era. The way and manner that the plane disappeared was a shock to many people. The search party looked for ages until they finally found pieces of the plane but that was about it. The article was well written and it could have added examples of the possible theories of what happened to the Malaysia flight. One of the scariest details is the fact that the pilot said his last goodbyes because he knew what was going on the flight.