Today marks the six-month anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which was carrying 239 people on board. So, here’s a look at what we know about the mystery.
The exact fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and its 239 passengers still remains a mystery six months after the plane disappeared on March 8 this year.
However, there are a few things that we know about MH370, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared, even if we still don’t know exactly where the plane ended up…
1. Diversion
According to military radar reports, flight MH370 changed course in the middle of the night, about two-and-a-half-hours after takeoff. Why the plane, and the pilots, made this change of course remains unclear.
2. Last Contact
The last contact that flight MH370 had with someone on the ground was at 1.19am when one of its pilots told air traffic control: “Goodnight, Malaysian three-seven-zero.” At 1.22am the plane’s transponder was either turned off, or it stopped working.
3. Pilot Scrutiny
Both the pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, quickly became prime suspects in the disaster. However, recently, Malaysia’s defence minister denied that the pilots were regarded as a “prime suspects”.
4. Passenger Scrutiny
Of the 239 passengers onboard, two thirds were from China (152), while the rest hailed from Australia (6), Canada (2), France (4), Hong Kong (1), India (5), Indonesia (7), Iran (2), Malaysia (38), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (2), Russia (1), Taiwan (1), Ukraine (2) and finally the USA (3). Attentions quickly turned to the two Iranian passengers who were both travelling on fake passports. However, a successful terror plot was ruled out when investigators found that the two men were attempting to travel to Germany to find work.
5. The initial search
Due to the Malaysian government’s failure to reveal the specifics of MH370’s flight path, search and rescue teams started looking for the plane over a vast area. However, 10 days after the crash the plan’s final flight path was finally revealed and search teams were able to pinpoint their efforts closer to the actual crash. Unfortunately, after 10 days floating in the ocean, much of the wreckage had sunk below the surface making it next to impossible for rescue teams to spot debris.
6. Potential black box contact
Roughly three weeks after the plane disappeared, British, Chinese and Australian search vessels started detecting weak radio signals in the Indian Ocean, which were believed to have been omitted from flight MH370’s black box. However, unfortunately for those who lost loved ones in the crash, the weak signals eventually faded out due to the incredible depths. In late April, the aerial search for debris was called off, while the underwater search was suspended a few weeks later in May.
7. Malaysia Airlines
Since the disappearance of MH370 and the loss of MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine in July, Malaysia Airlines’ stock price has tanked and the company looks set to lose nearly 6,000 jobs as it is reconstructed into a regionally focused airline.
8. Foreign help
Ten days after the plane was reported missing, Australia took control of the search effort and since then, Australian and Chinese boats have been working on mapping out the ocean floor through a ‘bathymetric’ study.
9. Conspiracy theories
From aliens to a North Korean cover-up, there have been numerous conspiracy theories regarding the disappearance of MH370, some of which you’ll find over here.
10. The future
The search isn’t over yet and the maps currently being created by Australian and Chinese boats (see no.8) will be used later this month when search teams once again attempt to find the missing Malaysia Airlines’ plane in a one-year expedition worth €36.7m.
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