Tuesday 18 March 2014

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