Advertisement

Timeline: The Disappearance Of Flight MH370

As Malaysian experts prepare to examine a large piece of debris which could be from Flight MH370, here is a timeline of major developments since the airliner disappeared.

:: 8 March 2014

The Malaysia Airlines flight leaves Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 12.41am local time with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.

It makes its last verbal contact with Malaysian air traffic control at 1.19am.

:: 9 March

Vietnamese aircraft reports seeing a door off the southwest coast of Vietnam, but it was found to be unrelated to Flight MH370.

:: 15 March

The search area is expanded to two air corridors – a northern one stretching as far as Turkmenistan and Thailand – and one which goes through Indonesia and into the southern Indian Ocean.

:: 20 March

Australian satellite images show two objects around 1,550 miles west of Perth, but surveillance aircraft are unable to locate them.

:: 22 March

Chinese satellites spot a large object further south in the Indian Ocean, but aircraft flying over the site find only clumps of seaweed and a wooden pallet.

:: 23 March

French satellites pick up 122 objects some 1,500 miles west of Australia, but search crews fail to find anything of significance.

:: 24 March

Relatives are told the jet had crashed in the Indian Ocean by text message.

:: 28 March

The search continues in a new location, further north in the Indian Ocean, with a Chinese plane spotting three multi-coloured objects.

:: 31 March

An Australian pilot spots a cluster of orange objects, which turn out to be fishing equipment.

:: 4 April

Australian authorities launch a new underwater phase of the search. British vessel HMS Echo and nuclear submarine HMS Tireless join the effort.

:: 7 April

The "most promising lead" so far is declared by search team leader Angus Houston – after two signals are detected, suggesting the presence of a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder.

:: 30 May

Search teams say they remain "absolutely confident" they will find the missing plane, despite an error tracing underwater signals that left them scouring the wrong area.

:: 9 June

Families try to raise $5m (£3.2m) to reward any "whistleblower" who can offer information which leads to the discovery of the lost plane.

:: 17 July

Malaysia Airlines is in the headlines again after Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is shot down over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine.

All 298 passengers and crew on board are killed. Ukraine and the West believe the rebels shot down the plane with a Russia-supplied missile system.

Russia denies involvement. The MH17 disaster is still under investigation.

:: 28 August

The search for MH370 shifts to a different area of the southern Indian Ocean.

:: 22 October

Malaysia's Defence Minister tells Sky News he is "99.9% sure" the sonar technology being used in the hunt for Flight MH370 will find the doomed jet.

:: 29 January 2015

Authorities in Malaysia officially declare that the loss of Flight MH370 was an accident, and that all on board are dead.

:: 7 March

Relatives mark the first anniversary since the disappearance of the Boeing 777 – and Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai says his country remains committed to finding the plane.

:: 8 March

The man in charge of the search, Martin Dolan, says he is "expecting but not guaranteeing" that the aircraft will be found – after covering 40% of a 60,000 sq km search area.

:: 16 April

Ministers from Malaysia, Australia and China – the three nations leading the operation – vow to double the search area for Flight MH370 if the plane is not recovered by the end of May.

:: 13 May

Search teams make an unexpected discovery after finding a cluster of objects which turn out to be a shipwreck.

:: 29 July

A large piece of debris washes ashore on Reunion Island – sparking speculation it may be from Flight MH370.

Air safety investigators say they have a "high degree of confidence" the debris is from a Boeing 777, and experts from Malaysia fly to the island to examine the find.