MH370 Disappearance 2014

On 8th March 2014 at 16.41 UTC (7th March),  Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) - a Boeing 777-200ER (Registration 9M-MRO) - departed Kuala Lumpur (ICAO Location Indicator WMKK) bound for Beijing (ICAO Location Indicator ZBAA). 

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has claimed Malaysia secretly concluded that the pilot at the helm of doomed flight MH370 committed mass murder-suicide.

Mr Abbott sensationally revealed he was told by those at the 'very top levels' of the Malaysian government just days after the tragedy that Captain Zaharie Shah was a suicidal killer, rather than their being any fault with the aircraft.

Flight MH370 became one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries when it vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 persons (227 passengers + 12 crew) - including six Australians - who were never seen again. 

Publicly, the Malaysian government's investigation remained inconclusive, but privately, Mr Abbott claimed those at the top knew the true explanation within a week of its disappearance, but he fears search teams were never informed.

See Mail Online (Australia) 18 February 2020 - Tony Abbott sensationally reveals the Malaysian government 'at the highest levels' told him the MH370 tragedy was a 'mass-murder suicide' by the pilot - but search teams were kept in the dark

Abbott was PM of Australia from 18 September 2013 to 15 September 2015. 

: MH370 SAFETY INVESTIGATION REPORT :

Provided below is a link to the MH370 Safety Investigation Report 02 July 2018.

Click here for:
MH370 Safety Investigation Report - 02 July 2018

(The large report - pdf format - may take a while to download).

: NOTE :

The Daily Mail article refers to 239 passengers. The Safety Investigation reports states that there were 227 passengers and 12 crew.

Global air traffic surveillance of aircraft

Updated 5 February 2019

The disappearance of MH370 highlighted a pressing need for aircraft position to be reported and recorded.  It has been announced that the UK Air Traffic Control provider - National Air Traffic Services (NATS) - has taken a 10% stake in USA based Aereon - NATS takes equity stake in Aireon.  It is claimed that this will help accelerate the technology required for global aviation surveillance.


See Aireon - Space based ADS-B

Through a network of 66 low Earth orbiting Iridium^® NEXT satellites, Aireon^SM will monitor the location of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft flying anywhere in the world, transforming the way air traffic control services are provided.

Malaysia Flight 370 - History

9M-MRO at Paris in 2011

This post will be updated to keep abreast of events so please revisit ... Latest update 9 September 2023

On 8th March 2014 at 16.41 UTC (7th March),  Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) - a Boeing 777-200ER (Registration 9M-MRO) - departed Kuala Lumpur (ICAO Location Indicator WMKK) bound for Beijing (ZBAA).  The aeroplane carried 12 crew and 227 passengers.

Depending on the precise route, this is a flight distance of around 2380 nautical miles and takes approximately 6 hours.  The aircraft would have been expected to reach Beijing by around 22.30 UTC (7th March).

At time 17.19 UTC (7th March) there was a final radio communication between Air Traffic Control and the aircraft.  Details of that communication were, after some delay, released by the Malaysian authorities - see Missing plane: pilots' conversations revealed.

As to who made the final transmission from the aircraft see the report in Telegraph 24th June where it is claimed that the voice was that of the aircraft's captain.

Shortly after this - at 17.20 UTC (7th March) - the aircraft's transponder