Saturday, 8th of March, 2014
– Indian Ocean :
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, an international scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL/WMKK), Malaysia, to Beijing-Capital International Airport (PEK/ZBAA), China, operated with a Boeing 777-2H6ER, registration 9M-MRO, went missing during its flight within the Indian Ocean.
The twelve crew and 227 passengers are presumed dead. (239 fatalities)
The disappearance of Flight 370 is the second deadliest accident involving the Boeing 777.
– Details:
The Boeing 777-2H6ER took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s runway 32R at 00:41. At 00:42 the flight was cleared to climb to FL180 and was issued a direct track by Lumpur Approach to the IGARI waypoint. MH370 was then transferred to Lumpur Radar and was cleared to climb to FL250. At 00:50 the flight was further cleared to the planned cruising altitude of FL350. MH370 reported maintaining FL350 at 01:07. Last radio contact was at 01:19 when the Kuala Lumpur Radar controller instructed the flight to contact the radio frequency of Ho Chi Minh Air Traffic Control Centre, Vietnam: “Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9 Good Night”. One of the flight crew members replied: “Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero.”
At 01:21 MH370 was observed on the radar screen of the Kuala Lumpur Radar controller as it passed over waypoint IGARI. Nine seconds later the radar label for MH370 disappeared from the radar screen. The transponder was switched off.
At 01:38 Ho Chi Minh ATCC contacted Kuala Lumpur ATCC on the whereabouts of MH370. Kuala Lumpur ATCC contacted the airline’s operations centre, Singapore ACC, Hong Kong ACC, and Phnom Penh ACC, failing to establish the location of MH370.
Meanwhile, the airplane flew in a westerly direction back over peninsular Malaysia before turning northwest. Primary radar data showed that the aircraft tracked along the Malacca Strait. During this time the aircraft passed close to waypoints VAMPI, MEKAR, NILAM and possibly IGOGU along a section of airway N571. The final primary radar fix occurred at 02:22.
From then on seven handshakes between the aircraft’s SATCOM system and the Inmarsat ground station were recorded. Last satellite data was recorded at 08:11 Malaysian time.
– Probable Cause: “Due to lack of evidences the exact cause of the accident could not be determined.
– Report:
