Timeline
Night of, official search, debris, and the ISR/MAGIC lineage on one rail. Filter by phase.
Night of 7–8 March
MH370 departs Kuala Lumpur
16:42 UTC · 00:42 MYT 8 March 2014
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777-2H6ER registered 9M-MRO, takes off from KLIA runway 32R bound for Beijing Capital International Airport with 227 passengers and 12 crew.
Level at FL350
17:01:17 UTC
The captain reports maintaining flight level 350. The aircraft is established on the filed route toward waypoint IGARI.
Last ACARS transmission
17:07:29 UTC
The final Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System message leaves 9M-MRO. Expected reports at 17:37 and 18:07 never arrive.
Last voice contact
17:19:30 UTC · “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”
Lumpur Radar transfers MH370 to Ho Chi Minh. The reply — attributed to the captain — is the last recorded voice transmission from the flight.
Waypoint IGARI
17:20:31 UTC
MH370 passes IGARI, the FIR boundary between Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh, seconds before disappearing from secondary radar.
Secondary radar lost
17:21:13 UTC
Mode S transponder returns cease. Primary (military) radar continues to paint an unidentified westbound track consistent with MH370.
Turn back across the Malay Peninsula
17:21–17:52 UTC
Primary radar shows a left turn off the Beijing airway, a crossing of Malaysia, and a track toward the Andaman Sea. The official report calls this diversion likely the result of manual inputs.
First officer’s phone registers at Penang
17:52:27 UTC
A cell-site handshake from F/O Fariq Abdul Hamid’s mobile is recorded by a Penang tower as the aircraft passes nearby. No call is connected.
Last primary radar contact
18:22:12 UTC
The final military primary-radar return is recorded northwest of Malaysia, over the Andaman Sea approaches. After this, only the satellite terminal speaks.
Satellite data unit logs back on
18:25:27 UTC · Handshake 1
Three minutes after the last radar paint, the aircraft SDU sends a log-on request to Inmarsat. Investigators treat this as a power restoration to the SATCOM avionics.
Unanswered ground-to-air telephone call
18:39:52 UTC
Malaysia Airlines operations places a sat-phone call to the aircraft. The SDU acknowledges the incoming call; nobody in the cockpit answers.
Handshake 2
19:41:00 UTC
Ground-initiated hourly handshake. The aircraft remains a live Inmarsat terminal, southbound on the Indian Ocean corridor in later reconstructions.
Handshake 3
20:41:02 UTC
Third SATCOM handshake. Hourly keep-alive continues.
Handshake 4
21:41:24 UTC
Fourth SATCOM handshake, still on the southern corridor in BFO reconstructions.
Handshake 5
22:41:19 UTC
Fifth SATCOM handshake.
Second unanswered sat-phone call
23:13:58 UTC
Another ground-to-air telephone call is acknowledged by the SDU and unanswered in the cockpit.
Malaysia Airlines declares the flight missing
23:24 UTC
The airline issues a public statement that MH370 is missing, hours after radio and radar contact were lost and while the aircraft is still exchanging satellite handshakes.
Handshake 6 — last successful hourly ping
00:10:58 UTC 8 March
The last completed ground-initiated handshake. Eight minutes later the aircraft sends a log-on associated with fuel exhaustion.
Handshake 7 — aircraft-initiated log-on
00:19:29 UTC · probable fuel exhaustion
The SDU sends a log-on request, then a log-on acknowledge eight seconds later. The investigation treats this as power-up after dual engine flame-out.
Failed handshake — terminal silent
01:15:56 UTC
The ground station interrogates 9M-MRO and receives no response. The aircraft is no longer a live terminal.
RMAF notifies KL ARCC of the western military track
22:30 MYT 8 March 2014 · ~12 hours after the minister
SAR chronology: civilian rescue centre informed of the possible turn-back / western last-known at 22:30 Malaysian time. Ministerial awareness ~10:30. The gap is a documented information-latency issue, not by itself a finding of a cover-up.
Search 2014–2017
Surface search begins in the South China Sea
8 March 2014
Ships and aircraft search the Gulf of Thailand / South China Sea along the filed route — the wrong ocean for several days.
Indonesia: Lhokseumawe and Sabang did not paint MH370
14–19 March 2014 statements
Indonesian Air Force/Defence: no detection of MH370 crossing Indonesian airspace. Lhokseumawe cited ~240 nm capability. Formal denial of concealment.
Malaysia announces the southern Indian Ocean track
15 March 2014
Prime Minister Najib Razak states that new satellite data show MH370 flew for hours into the southern Indian Ocean. The search pivots.
Australia leads the southern search
March 2014 onward
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre coordinates a vast surface search, then an underwater search, in the southern Indian Ocean.
Thailand discloses Surat Thani military-radar paint
18–19 March 2014 · ~9–10 days after disappearance
Thai Air Force: unknown/non-normal target ~01:28 MYT 8 March, minutes after secondary-radar loss, moving southwest then toward Butterworth / Strait of Malacca. Not initially shared.
Towed-pinger detections — not MH370
April 2014
Acoustic detections in the search area are investigated with an AUV. No wreckage is found. The detections are not attributed to 9M-MRO’s recorders.
Bathymetry and underwater search begin
October 2014
Fugro vessels and partners begin wide-area bathymetric mapping and towed-sonar search of a defined 7th-arc corridor.
Official underwater search suspended
17 January 2017
Australia, Malaysia and China suspend the ATSB-led search after 120,000 km² of seabed have been covered with no wreckage.
Debris 2015–2017
Right flaperon found on Réunion
29 July 2015
A Boeing 777 right flaperon washes ashore at Saint-Denis, Réunion. French authorities later confirm it is from 9M-MRO — the first physical evidence.
Flaperon confirmed as 9M-MRO
3 September 2015
French authorities confirm the Réunion flaperon belongs to MH370. The disappearance is no longer a missing-aircraft case without wreckage.
Flap-track fairing found in Mozambique
27 December 2015 / identified 2016
A right-wing no. 7 flap support fairing is recovered at Daghatane Beach, Mozambique. Stencilling matches Malaysia Airlines practice; ATSB judges it almost certainly MH370.
Left outboard aft flap confirmed
10 May 2016 · Mauritius
A flap section found at Îlot Bernache, Mauritius, is identified by unique manufacturing numbers as belonging to 9M-MRO.
Right outboard flap confirmed in Tanzania
20 June 2016
A 4.6 m right outboard flap section is found on Pemba Island, Tanzania, and confirmed as 9M-MRO.
Private search 2018
Investigation
Al-Qaeda meeting, Kuala Lumpur, January 2000
Hijackers later on the 9/11 flights attended an al-Qaeda meeting in Kuala Lumpur in January 2000. CIA tracked the meeting. Fourteen years later MH370 left the same city’s airport.
Investigation networks spear-phished the day after MH370 vanished
CyberSecurity Malaysia · ~30 PCs · disclosed 20 August 2014
Confirmed as CSM’s public account. On 9 March, officials at the Department of Civil Aviation, the National Security Council and Malaysia Airlines were sent malware disguised as a news article that the aircraft had been found. About thirty computers were infected. Outbound mail carrying confidential files, including meeting minutes and classified documents, some related to MH370, was traced to an IP in China. CSM shut the machines down and asked Chinese providers to block the traffic. Police and Interpol were involved. What exactly was stolen is still unpublished.
MyCERT: MH370-themed backdoor and fake-transcript spear-phish
MA-381 · 24 March 2014 · MA-386 · 18 April 2014
Confirmed public advisories, a different campaign from the 9 March official-network intrusion. 24 March: a Facebook-app lure dropping a backdoor with remote-control (C2) capability. 18 April: emails posing as an investigation team / ICAO portal item, password-protected archive, fake MH370 transcript, command-and-control. Aimed at organisations and the public, not shown to be the DCA/NSC/MAS breach.
Malaysia releases the safety investigation report
30 July 2018
The ICAO Annex 13 team, led by Kok Soo Chon, publishes hundreds of pages and cannot determine the cause. Diversion is judged likely from manual inputs. Third-party intervention is not excluded.
Renewed search 2024–2027
Ocean Infinity proposes a new search
May–December 2024
Ocean Infinity submits a fresh no-find-no-fee proposal. In December 2024 Malaysia approves in principle a 15,000 km² search worth up to US$70 million if wreckage is found.
2025–2026 Ocean Infinity phases
25–28 March 2025 and 31 Dec 2025 – 23 Jan 2026
Two operational phases survey about 7,571 km² of a 15,000 km² priority box. Malaysia’s 8 March 2026 family update: nothing found that confirms the wreckage.
Malaysia extends the search contract to June 2027
29 June 2026
Cabinet extends the Ocean Infinity agreement from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 to finish a remaining 7,428.54 km². No-find-no-fee terms continue.
ISR / remote-control lineage
Boeing files uninterruptible-autopilot priority
19 February 2003 · later US7142971B2
Patent architecture: remote or automatic engagement; onboard controls may be disconnected; dedicated communications; inaccessible power path. Precedent, not an MH370 installation.
Cubic Defense anti-hijack remote-pilot patent granted
US6641087B1 · filed 9 Oct 2001 · granted 4 Nov 2003
Commercial-aircraft retrofit module: deactivate cockpit controls, satellite-relayed remote guidance, optional comms disable, FDR/CVR uplink. Confirmed IP. No evidence of airline installation.
Lockheed awarded ISIS Phase 3
27 April 2009 · just under $400m
Lockheed integrator, Raytheon radar, one-third-scale autonomous airship. Same later PE as MAGIC.
MAGIC JCTD initiated
FY2010 Q3 · OSD/DDR&E
Competition among five defence-industry partners. $5m initial to AFRL. CENTCOM persistent-ISR sponsorship in Aurora’s 2010 release.
L-3 Greenville awarded Blue Devil 2 integration / test
FA8620-06-G-4003 / order 1157 · $12.054m · 17 Aug 2011
L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Greenville, Texas, paid for BD2 airship integration and test support. Later Q4 FY2012 storage was also at a 645 AESG-managed Greenville facility. Geographic coincidence is not a custody finding.
Orion 123-hour engine bench test
January 2012 · Manassas, Virginia
Propulsion endurance exceeded the 120-hour flight objective on the ground rig before the airframe flew.
Blue Devil II stopped; hardware to Greenville
Payload stop 4 Jan 2012 · pack-out May 2012 · storage Q4 FY2012
Airship programme killed. Equipment packed and transferred to a BIG SAFARI-managed facility in Greenville, Texas. Components were available for other projects. Residual parts were later absorbed into other Air Force programmes.
Orion first flight, China Lake
24 August 2013 · ~3.5 hours · 8,000 ft · no mission payload
Remote launch from GCS. Air vehicle and command link demonstrated. ISR stack not yet fitted.
Blue Devil I operational demonstration ends
31 December 2013 · four King Airs returning to Leidos
Attributed via Inside the Air Force, 22 Jan 2014, quoting USAF officials. The four leased King Airs were returning to Leidos, so the original Afghanistan fleet was not an operational candidate on 8 March 2014. The multi-INT sensor package remained US Government property and was being assessed for reassignment (MC-12 and MQ-9 mentioned, not selected). The sensors did not disappear with the lease.
Raytheon MTS award for HC/MC-130J — one day before MH370
$10.072556m · 10 systems · 7 March 2014
Chronology fact only. No evidence these turrets or aircraft observed MH370. HD-capable MTS-B was entering USAF inventory through 2013–14.
USAF: Gorgon Stare Increment 2 ‘tried operationally’
Air & Space Forces · 7 April 2014 · Col Brandon Baker
A named USAF official puts Increment 2 operational-trial activity by early April 2014. It does not establish airborne availability on 7–8 March.
Orion flight 18 — 80-hour record with 1,000 lb ballast
December 2014 · not an ISR-payload demonstration
Aurora’s endurance attempt was flight 18 and carried 1,000 lb of ballast. Maiden flight (no mission system) and this record flight both fail as evidence of an operational ISR stack. Payload on flights 2–17 remains open.
Orion 80-hour remotely controlled flight
December 2014 · 1,000 lb ballast · fuel for ~37 more hours
Contractor-confirmed endurance after MH370. This was flight 18 and carried 1,000 lb of ballast. Shows the air vehicle matured; does not rewind payload status to March.