Any investigation starts from the known facts. In the case of MH370, the basic facts surrounding the flight were produced by the official investigation, which included experts from Malaysia, Australia, China, United Kingdom, United States and France.
I have extracted the factual information included here from documents released by the official investigation. I refer specifically to documents from the following two agencies: The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370, and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
During any investigation, it can be difficult to agree on what actually constitutes a “fact”. However, I agree with the following basic facts that, as mentioned, originated with the official investigation.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) was a Boeing 777-200ER (B777) airplane that departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport in the dark of night, at 42 minutes past midnight local time on 8 March 2014. The destination was Beijing, China. On board were 12 Malaysian crewmembers, and 227 passengers.
The captain of the airplane was Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who was 53 years old. He was married and had three children. Captain Shah had been an airline pilot with Malaysia Airlines for 33 years, and had 18,423 hours of flight time. He had been a B777 captain for 16 years, and had 8,659 hours on that airplane type. By virtue of his good track record and seniority, he had been designated as a Type Rating Instructor, and Type Rating Examiner, on the B777. He was recognized as an accomplished and well-respected pilot who had no blemishes on his record.
The co-pilot of the airplane was Fariq Abdul Hamid, who was 27 years old. He was unmarried. Co-pilot Hamid had been an airline pilot with Malaysia Airlines for 7 years, and had 2,813 hours of flight time. He was in the process of transitioning to the B777, and was just finishing his mandatory training to complete the transition. He had 39 hours on the B777. MH370 was to be his final training flight prior to undergoing his “check ride”, which was to take place on his next scheduled flight. This type-check training is a normal process in airline operations. Captain Shah, as a designated Type Rating Instructor, was authorized to conduct such training on regularly scheduled flights.
The planned flight duration for MH370 was 5 hours, 34 minutes. The captain had ordered sufficient fuel for a flight endurance of 7 hours, 31 minutes, allowing some two hours of contingency fuel.
The flight departed normally from Kuala Lumpur, and climbed to its planned cruising altitude of Flight Level 350 (written as “FL350”, which is approximately 35,000 feet above sea level). It proceeded toward its first en route electronic waypoint – the IGARI waypoint. (Airplanes navigate along an assigned route by tracking through a series of fixed locations, known as waypoints, which provide a more-or-less straight-line track to their destination.)
About 37 minutes after departure, as the airplane was approaching the IGARI waypoint, Air Traffic Control (ATC) cleared MH370 to switch to the communication radio frequency of the next control sector, where the pilot would be expected to report in.
In the area of the IGARI waypoint, the airplane was in a transition zone. It would leave the airspace controlled by the Kuala Lumpur ATC sector, and enter the airspace controlled by the Ho Chi Minh ATC sector. The reply from the airplane to Kuala Lumpur ATC was, “Good night Malaysia Three Seven Zero”. As has been well documented, this was the final radio communication with MH370.
Less than two minutes after that final radio transmission, a significant anomaly occurred on board MH370. Something happened on board the airplane that caused the airplane to disappear from all ATC radar screens. The electronic tracking signal from the airplane completely disappeared. This electronic signal is transmitted from the airplane by a radio unit called a transponder. The transponder signal is sent in response to an interrogation from a ground-based radar facility. After the transponder signal disappeared from the radar screens, MH370 was essentially invisible to ATC.
From that point on, after the transponder signal disappeared, there was no more ATC interaction with MH370. There was no more voice communication with the airplane, and MH370 was no longer under any ATC control or monitoring.
Initially, the disappearance of MH370 did not raise any red flags with the controllers at ATC. This was because of the specific location where the transponder signal disappeared from the radar screens – just as the flight was being handed off from one control sector to the next. Investigators found that it had taken some time before the controller in the receiving sector noticed that an expected airplane (MH370) had not checked in, or shown up on his radar screen.
I have added the following commentary for context, and not to provide an excuse for ATC. A receiving controller is not necessarily focused on watching the radar screen for a handed-off airplane to show up. Their primary responsibility is collision avoidance. ATC’s task is to ensure the track and altitude of the incoming airplane (MH370) do not conflict with another airplane in their sector. A receiving controller would know that the clearance delivery system would not have issued the assigned track and altitude for MH370 to enter their sector if a potential conflict existed. Also, there would be an expectation by the receiving controller that any airplane entering their sector would immediately check in, thereby drawing their attention. Most certainly the MH370 pilot would be aware of this dynamic, and that is why he chose this specific location to make his airplane disappear.
Essentially, at 01:21 local time (39 minutes after departure) MH370 simply disappeared. It was only after some 17 minutes that the Ho Chi Minh ATC sector controller noticed that MH370 had not checked in, and that sector checked with the Kuala Lumpur ATC sector to see what might have gone wrong. The Kuala Lumpur ATC sector contacted the other ATC sectors along the flight-planned route, but none of them had established contact with MH370.
It was not until some 5 hours after MH370 had disappeared from electronic radar tracking that the Kuala Lumpur Rescue Coordination Centre was activated, and a search-and-rescue operation was initiated. ATC could not provide the Rescue Coordination Centre with any specific information about the whereabouts of the flight, other than where it was when it disappeared. They had no way of knowing whether MH370 had landed, or crashed, or had flown on in some unknown direction.
Over time, investigation officials learned more about the history of the flight. In the days following the disappearance of the MH370, investigators studied recorded radar from a number of different radar sources, looking for primary radar returns they could attribute to the airplane. They discovered that after MH370 disappeared (electronically) from the civilian ATC radar screens near the IGARI waypoint, it had remained visible (as a primary radar return only) on some military radar screens.
From studying these primary radar returns, they discovered that almost immediately after crossing the IGARI waypoint, and at virtually the same time as the transponder signal disappeared, MH370 diverted completely away from its original flight plan. Instead of following its expected course straight ahead towards its destination, it first made a slight right turn, and then an immediate and aggressive left turn to basically reverse course.
Investigators found that MH370 then followed an unexpected track that took it first to the southwest, to near Penang Island, and then to the west over the Andaman Sea north of Indonesia. The specific track followed by MH370, along the borderlines between radar stations, kept the airplane from attracting the attention of a number of military radar installations.
Even after MH370 flew out of radar range, investigators were able to determine a basic track line for the airplane. Led by the ATSB, investigators were able to use satellite communication signals transmitted from the airplane to determine that after passing the northern tip of Sumatra (Indonesia), MH370 turned to the south and flew for some six hours in a southerly direction. They calculated that the airplane ended its flight in the southern Indian Ocean, west of Australia.
By digging further into the records, investigators discovered another anomaly that had occurred early in the flight of MH370. They found that there had been an unexpected loss of communication between the airplane’s ACARS system (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) and the satellite it was communicating through.
ACARS works in the background to provide a platform for routine messaging with the airplane. At specific intervals, ACARS is also used to automatically send out routine status reports from the airplane. Reports can be sent to the airline, and to the engine manufacturers, and to others. The ACARS reports contain information about the functioning of certain monitored systems, including the engines.
Unlike the transponder signal, it was not possible for the investigators to determine an exact time for when the ACARS was disrupted. That is because unlike the transponder, the ACARS transmissions occur only intermittently. On MH370, the routine scheduled transmissions were to occur every 30 minutes.
Investigators discovered that the last successful routine (scheduled) ACARS transmission from MH370 occurred 25 minutes after departure, 14 minutes prior to the disappearance of the transponder signal. The next routine (scheduled) ACARS transmission was not received. Investigators could then conclude that the disruption to ACARS happened sometime during that 30 minutes, within the same timeframe that the electronic transponder signal was lost.
To put context to this information about ACARS, you will see that it is my contention that the pilot intentionally turned off the transponder, and intentionally tried to disable the ACARS functioning. He took both actions in a relatively short timeframe. Fortunately, the pilot was not aware that he did not disable one specific ACARS/satellite connection to do with engine monitoring. It was this remaining electronic connection with the satellite that investigators used to figure out that the airplane had flown to the southern Indian Ocean. For those who are familiar with the term, it was this connection that produced the “handshakes” – there will be much more on this later.
Unlike the transponder signal, which is critical because it lets ATC know where the airplane is, the dropout of ACARS would not be noticeable to anybody straight away.
As stated previously, the above factual information is consistent with that released by the official investigation. I accept it as being credible.