Flight MH370: An Unanswered Mystery

At 12:42 am on the night of March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777 operated by Malaysian Airlines departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. The plane, designated Flight MH370, was carrying 239 people: 227 passengers and 12 crew, including the senior Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and First Officer Fariq Hamid.

The routine flight climbed to its 35,000-foot cruising altitude. After a few slightly irregular radio checks made by Captain Zaharie, the plane reached the edge of Malaysian airspace. At 1:19 a.m., air traffic control advised them to contact the next sector. The response from the cockpit was simple: "Good night. Malaysian three-seven-zero." This was the final, ordinary sign-off. The pilots never checked in with the new controllers, and instantly, Flight MH370 disappeared. Even after 11 years, the aircraft has never been found, and the mystery of what really happened that night remains unanswered. Even after years of massive search operations, investigators came up empty-handed, finding no answers, no victims, and no plane. It is something that still bothers everyone. How can a modern aircraft, tracked and equipped with the latest technology, simply vanish?

The flight carried people of many nationalities, with the majority of passengers coming from China. When authorities examined the plane’s cargo, they discovered it included electronics, such as lithium batteries, along with some walkie-talkies. Right after the plane vanished, Malaysia led a massive search effort with help from over two dozen countries. The first stage lasted 52 days, mostly from the air, covering a staggering 1.7 million square miles and involving 334 flights. By January 2017, after scouring more than 46,000 square miles of the Indian Ocean floor, Australia, Malaysia, and China decided to end the underwater search, which had already cost around $150 million. While the search team uncovered several 19th-century shipwrecks, the plane itself remained missing. A US company then took on the task on a “no find, no fee” basis, combing more than 43,000 square kilometres just beyond the original search area—but still, the plane was nowhere in sight. However, around 20 pieces of debris believed to come from the plane have been found washed up along the African coast.

Speculation about the plane’s disappearance has been endless, ranging from strange ideas to serious possibilities. With so little concrete information, people and investigators have considered many scenarios: it could have run out of fuel, the pilots might have attempted an emergency sea landing, one or both pilots could have lost control or acted intentionally, or the plane might have been hijacked. In 2018, investigators released a 495-page report, but it didn’t solve the mystery. The team examined everything about the passengers and pilots, from their health and finances to how they spoke on the radio and even how they walked that morning, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

In March this year, Malaysia approved a new “no-find, no-pay” deal with Ocean Infinity to continue searching the ocean floor at a fresh 15,000-square-kilometre area. The company would earn $70 million only if they located any wreckage. Unfortunately, the search had to be paused in April because of bad weather. But it’s not over yet. Teams are heading back out this month to try and solve the mystery of MH370.