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
Avery Looney
The story of the Malaysian airline flight will never be forgotten and will remain one of the biggest unsolved mysteries. It’s crazy to think that an airline can just disappear out of the sky, without a trace of what happened to it. There are many different theories of what exactly happened on that day, but there is not enough evidence to establish which one is true. This horrible incident cost the lives of 239 people and affected the families and friends of all those on board.
Harashang Gajjar
This article was very good.The latest, privately funded search for the plane’s wreckage was called off in May this year with no significant new findings. The operation, led by US-based firm Ocean Infinity, covered 112,000sq km in the southern Indian Ocean over three months.It followed a $200 million search across an area of 120,000sq km by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, in conjunction with Malaysia and China, which delivered its report last year.
Mia Stahl
I vividly remember following the story of the lost flight. It was incredible when the debris was found, it gave the families of the people on board hope for the future. Something that is an obvious part of the missing flight is the constant wondering of the families if their loved ones died or not. It is incredible to think that this mystery has gone on for so long and might never be solved.
Valeria Perez
This story reminds me of something that would be discussed on Buzzfeed Unsolved. I had no idea that Australia was the country that took charge over the search of MH370. I would have expected it to be Malaysia. I was especially surprised by the amount of time they looked for the plane! It must have been a horrible experience for everyone involved, especially the families of those in the plane as they still have no definitive closure.
Nathan Hartley
I remember seeing stories about this flight in the news and I can’t believe that there is almost no way to know exactly where the plane is. I am not sure we will ever know what really happened and I feel sorry for the family and friends of the people who were on that flight, and I hope that in the future they can know what really happened.
Kacey Diaz
This was a really interesting to read because I remember hearing about this incident when I was in 8th grade. In my class we would follow up on this case and we never got any updates so then the news just stopped covering the incident. I liked this article because it informed me on how volunteers have found pieces of the airplane.
Mason Meza
It is scary to think that there is still no word on this flight or any of the people that were on board. Even with all of the technology that we have today you would think that we would be able to at least know where there last whereabouts were. I hope that in the near future we will have an end to this case so that we at least know what happened to all of those people.
Miguel Rivera
The article makes you think, what if one day, I board a plane that disappears. Not crash, but just disappear like a cloud of mist. The mystery is, how can this plane just simply disappear? It’s astonishing to see how this could happen to such a large plane. The many conspiracy theories surrounding this incident, makes you think what could’ve possibly have happened to the poor souls on board. I understand that the ocean is enormous, and I hope that one day we do find out what exactly happened to the missing flight.
Michael Hinojosa
It is horrible to know that even to this day no one knows what happened to flight MH370 and that the flight itself will always be shrouded in mystery. I remember researching as much as I could about the incident when it was announced on the news and even to this day I would still find myself looking up as many theories as possible to try and piece together this mystery.
Peter Coons
Missing vessels have always interested me. What happened to cause the disappearance? Where is the wreckage? Did anyone survive? In most cases, the remains of the ship or plane are found shortly after the disappearance or eventually in long searches. What intrigues me so much about MH370 is the “Lost” scenario it provokes. No bodies, just three pieces of the plane. Small pieces, at that. with the world’s landmasses all charted to some degree, we know it isn’t on an island for the most part. That leaves us with the assumption it lays at the bottom of the sea. If so, then where? in over four years, the plane has never been found. I believe that it will become the sort of legend the Titanic became, and it will be years before technology advances to a point where we can safely chart Earth’s last frontier: the oceans.