Disappearance (8 March 2014) Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:42 local time (MYT; UTC+08:00) en route to Beijing Capital International Airport, where it was expected to arrive at 6:30 local time (CST; UTC+08:00).
People Also Ask
Flight MH370, operated on the B777-200 aircraft, departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am on 8 March 2014. MH370 was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day. The flight was carrying a total number of 227 passengers (including 2 infants), 12 crew members.
Plane crashThe most widely accepted explanation for the tragedy was that the plane simply crashed into the sea, potentially due to a mechanical fault. In the subsequent years there have been three pieces of debris positively identified as being from MH370, with a further 30 potential pieces also found.
No dead bodies were found either and neither was the plane's black box. The final commission report said that experts were “unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance”. The crash location was also never confirmed.
Who was on board MH370? Twelve crew members were on the flight along with 227 passengers from 14 nations. Most of passengers, 153, were Chinese. Passengers included a group of Chinese calligraphers, two infants, three Americans, a stunt double for actor Jet Li, and a French national traveling with two children.
The landing gear on missing flight MH370 was down, suggesting the pilot may have deliberately crashed into the sea to sink the jet quickly, experts have claimed.
Some 83 aircraft have been declared “missing” since 1948, according to data compiled by the Aviation Safety Network. The list includes planes capable of carrying more than 14 passengers and where no trace — bodies or debris — has ever been found. Related Graphic: Where Could Flight 370 Be? >>
Since the crash of MH370 in the Indian Ocean a considerable amount of physical evidence has been gathered. 36 pieces of floating debris have been found and delivered to the Malaysian authorities for investigation.
Several other planes have disappeared in the region including five US bombers that vanished in 1945, but in spite of massive air and sea searches, no trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found. In 2009 a flight from Rio De Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 228 passengers and crew.
Possible causes of the aircraft's disappearanceThat the signals had likely been switched off from inside the aircraft suggested suicide by one of the crew, but nothing obviously suspicious was found in the behaviour of the captain, the first officer, or the cabin crew immediately prior to the flight.
Wang Moheng, 2, Chinese. The youngest passenger on flight MH370. The son of Wang Rui and Jiao Weiwei, Wang Moheng was only 23 months old at the time of the flight's disappearance. According to friends, his parents had taken him on his first overseas trip to “escape the bad air” of Beijing.
According to reports from The Daily Star in 2018, the ringing tone families were hearing is just a psychological trick used internationally to keep callers waiting while the network tries to connect.
Despite limited findings, including 41 confirmed debris items, the larger aircraft and its passengers remain missing, leaving much of the MH370 mystery still unresolved.