It has almost been 10 years since the aircraft disappeared.

By Katelyn Mensah

Published: Wednesday, 06 March 2024 at 09:00 AM


The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is one of the greatest aviation mysteries.

And, timed to the 10th anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, a new BBC documentary will look into new evidence and studies, and what this could mean for locating the aircraft.

Featuring interviews with relatives of the missing, aviation experts, former Malaysia Airlines employees and current and former pilots, Why Planes Vanish: The Hunt for MH370 will try and piece together what could have happened to the flight.

But what happened all those years ago, and what information is out there about flight MH370? Read on for everything you need to know.

What happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370?

In March 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 began its routine journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

There were 239 passengers and crew on board, and shortly after the plan took off, it disappeared from air traffic control radar screens, and all attempts to contact it were unsuccessful.

“Good night, Malaysian three seven zero,” were the words heard in the last voice transmission from the cockpit. In the final hours of its flight, the aircraft was spotted by satellites above the Indian Ocean.

Map showing the possible flightpaths MH370 could have taken, based on data from Inmarsat. Indian Ocean, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia can all be seen around the map.
Map showing the possible flightpaths MH370 could have taken. BBC/Windfall Films
BBC/Windfall Films

Has the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 ever been found?

A little over a year after searching for the missing aircraft, a section of a plane wing washed up on the shore off the East African Coast, with then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak confirming it was from MH370.

Over the years, a number of pieces of the plane have been discovered, including in Mozambique, Zanzibar and Mauritius. Three of the 27 pieces found were identified as belonging to flight 370.

In January 2017, the underwater search for the flight was called off.

“Today, the last search vessel has left the underwater search area,” the passengers’ families were told. “Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not been located in the 120,000 square-kilometre underwater search area in the South Indian Ocean.

“The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”

The following year, a privately funded search by Ocean Infinity also came to an end, with Malaysia saying it had no plans to restart the search.