Background
On 8 March 2014 a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO), operating flight MH370, took off from Kuala Lumpur at 00:42 local time, bound for Beijing. It carried 239 people: 227 passengers and 12 Malaysian crew. Most passengers were Chinese nationals. The captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, was 52; first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 26, was on a training flight.
What happened
The last ACARS data was received at 01:06 and the final radio message at 01:19. The transponder signal was lost at about 01:21 over the Gulf of Thailand. Military radar showed the aircraft turning back west across the Malay Peninsula, passing south of Penang and over the Strait of Malacca. The radar trace ended at 02:22 over the Andaman Sea.
The plane's satellite communication unit reconnected at 02:25 and exchanged hourly signals until 08:19. Analysis of those signals led investigators to conclude it ended its flight in the southern Indian Ocean after running out of fuel. Early searches covered the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand before shifting to the Indian Ocean.
Of those aboard, 153 passengers were Chinese and about 50 people were Malaysian. The last words recorded from the cockpit were "Good night. Malaysian three seven zero."
Investigation and search
An Australian-led underwater search surveyed about 120,000 square kilometres of seabed and was suspended on 17 January 2017 without result. At roughly US$155 million, it is described as the costliest search in aviation history. Between January and June 2018 the private company Ocean Infinity searched more than 112,000 square kilometres on a "no find, no fee" basis, also without success.
A flaperon found on Réunion Island in July 2015 became the first confirmed part of the aircraft, and other pieces found in East Africa and on Indian Ocean islands were later confirmed as coming from MH370. Malaysia's official report, published in July 2018, could not determine why the aircraft disappeared.
Where it stands today
Malaysia signed a new "no find, no fee" contract with Ocean Infinity in March 2025, and the company resumed seabed searching from 30 December 2025. No wreckage has been reported found. How and why the aircraft left its route remains unknown, and for families that uncertainty has lasted more than a decade.