GREATEST MYSTERY IN MODERN AVIATION
It's probably the greatest mystery in modern aviation: what happened to flight MH370? On March 8, 2014, the Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared en route to Beijing.
Eight years later and despite the most expensive underwater search in history, no wreckage has been found and the families of those on board are no closer to understanding what happened.
LAST CONTACT
The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER operated by Malaysia Airlines, last made voice contact with ATC at 01:19 MYT, 8 March (17:19 UTC, 7 March) when it was over the South China Sea, less than an hour after takeoff.
It disappeared from ATC radar screens at 01:22 MYT, but was still tracked on military radar as it turned sharply away from its original northeastern course to head west and cross the Malay Peninsula, continuing that course until leaving the range of the military radar at 02:22 while over the Andaman Sea, 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Malaysia.
SEARCH & RESCUE EFFORTS
The multinational search effort for the aircraft, which was to become the most expensive aviation search in history, began in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the aircraft's signal was last detected on secondary surveillance radar, and was soon extended to the Strait of Malacca and Andaman Sea.
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
Analysis of satellite communications between the aircraft and Inmarsat's satellite communications network concluded that the flight continued until at least 08:19 and flew south into the southern Indian Ocean, although the precise location cannot be determined.
The aircraft uses a satellite data unit (SDU) to send and receive signals over the satellite communications network; this operates independently from the other onboard systems that communicate via SATCOM, mostly using the ACARS protocol.
A few inferences can be made from the satellite communications. The first is that the aircraft remained operational until at least 08:19 MYT—seven hours after final contact was made with air traffic control over the South China Sea. The varying burst frequency offset (BFO) values indicate the aircraft was moving at speed. The aircraft's SDU needs location and track information to keep its antenna pointed towards the satellite, so it can also be inferred that the aircraft's navigation system was operational.
Since the aircraft did not respond to a ping at 09:15, it can be concluded that at some point between 08:19 and 09:15, the aircraft lost the ability to communicate with the ground station
Since the aircraft did not respond to a ping at 09:15, it can be concluded that at some point between 08:19 and 09:15, the aircraft lost the ability to communicate with the ground station. The log-on message sent from the aircraft at 08:19:29 was "log-on request"; there are only a few reasons the SDU would transmit this request, such as a power interruption, software failure, loss of critical systems providing input to the SDU, or a loss of the link due to the aircraft's attitude. Investigators consider the most likely reason to be that it was sent during power-up after an electrical outage.
At 08:19, the aircraft had been airborne for 7 hours and 38 minutes; the typical Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight is 51⁄2 hours, so fuel exhaustion was likely. In the event of fuel exhaustion and engine flame-out, which would eliminate power to the SDU, the aircraft's ram air turbine (RAT) would deploy, providing power to some instruments and flight controls, including the SDU. Approximately 90 seconds after the 02:25 handshake—also a log-on request—communications from the aircraft's in-flight entertainment system were recorded in the ground station log. Similar messages would be expected following the 08:19 handshake, but none were received, supporting the fuel-exhaustion scenario.
SEARCH FOR MH370
Australia assumed charge of the search on 17 March, when the search effort began to emphasise the southern Indian Ocean.
On 24 March, the Malaysian government noted that the final location determined by the satellite communication was far from any possible landing sites, and concluded, "Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."
From October 2014 to January 2017, a comprehensive survey of 120,000 km2 (46,000 sq mi) of sea floor about 1,800 km (1,100 mi; 970 nmi) southwest of Perth, Western Australia, yielded no evidence of the aircraft.
DEBRIS FROM MH370
Several pieces of marine debris found on the coast of Africa and on Indian Ocean islands off the coast of Africa—the first discovered on 29 July 2015 on Réunion—have all been confirmed as pieces of Flight 370.
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| The first item of debris to be positively identified as originating from Flight 370 was the right flaperon (a trailing edge control surface).It was discovered in late July 2015 on a beach in Saint-André, Réunion, an island in the western Indian Ocean, about 4,000 km (2,200 nmi; 2,500 mi) west of the underwater search area. |
By October 2017, 20 pieces of debris believed to be from 9M-MRO had been recovered from beaches in the western Indian Ocean;18 of the items were "identified as being very likely or almost certain to originate from MH370", while the other two were "assessed as probably from the accident aircraft
The bulk of the aircraft has not been located, prompting many theories about its disappearance.
ON BOARD MH370
MYSTERY CARGO THEORY
There have been varying theories put forward over the years to explain how the jet vanished, many questioned the huge cargo of mangosteen and batteries it was supposedly carrying as per the cargo manifest which was only revealed after a while.
MH370 families demand answers over ‘mystery’ cargo
According to the official manifest MH370 had in its cargo hold four-and-a-half tonnes of mangosteens!!! – a sweet tropical fruit about as big as a tangerine – along with 221kg of lithium-ion batteries.
“This quantity seems even more staggering given that it was not even mangosteen season.
“March is well past the harvest date for mangosteens. Moreover, when word of this cargo got out, the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) declared that there were no mangosteen trees in Johor state likely to bear fruit in that season.”
Khalid Abu Bakar Tan, Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police, later clarified that the fruit had not come from Muar but had merely been packaged there.
MH370 Cargo Manifest and Airway Bill - MOT
Another theory was that the batteries and mangosteen fruits could have mixed on the flight, creating a reaction that could cause an explosion or fire in the plane, causing it to lose oxygen or crash.
The new report notes: "There were concerns that the mangosteen extracts could have got into contact with the batteries and produced hazardous fumes or in a worst-case scenario caused a short circuit and/or fire."
The report said that the notion that the two products got into contact is "highly improbable." The report said the items were in a hold compartment together, but said both the batteries and fruit were wrapped up and in separate containers.
After carrying out tests, Malaysia's Science & Technology Research Institute for Defence was "convinced that the two items tested could not be the cause in the disappearance of MH370," the report claims.
The batteries were not registered as dangerous goods as their packaging adhered to guidelines. They went through customs inspection and clearance before the truck was sealed and left the factory, but were not given any additional security screening before loaded onto the plane.
The report said that this kind of cargo is realtively ordinary. Between January 2014 and May 2014, it said, there were 99 shipments of lithium-ion batteries on Malaysia Airlines flights to Beijing.
The report also disputed speculation that the mangosteen fruits were out of season during the shipment, which led some to suggest their inclusion in the cargo was suspicious. The report states that they were in season in neighboring countries, where they were harvested.
The fruit was inspected by the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority of Malaysia before it was loaded onto the aircraft.
Between January and May 2014 there were 85 shipments of mangosteens to Beijing. The two were carried together on 26 of these flights. At the time of writing, the same company is still exporting the fruits to China, according to the report.
So was the cargo really just Mangosteens and Batteries as per the manifesto, ........no one will ever know.
The mystery of MH370 — here are all the theories, dead ends, and unanswered questions from the most bizarre airline disaster of the century.
BEST FBKL:
Another coincidence that is something for all to think about:
-MH 370 was lost on March 7, 2014 ( March 7 in US/ Europe and 1.22am. March 8 in Malaysia)
(Notice the tail number and date similarity 3-7-0)
-MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014
(Notice the tail number and date it was shot down similarity again. 1-7 )
Could this be a COINCIDENCE??? both tragedies occured on the same date as their tail numbers in the same year, within months of each other? ... 😮😮😮
In both cases, there seem to be very little radar evidence .
It remains a mystery as long as there is no clear evidence
