Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 The disappearance on 8 March 2014 of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport, prompted a large, multinational search in Asia and the southern Indian Ocean that became the most expensive search in aviation history. Analysis of communications between the aircraft and Inmarsat by multiple agencies has concluded that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean. An analysis of possible flight paths was conducted, identifying a primary search-area, approximately west of Perth, Western Australia, which takes six days for vessels to
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from the radar screen at Kuala Lumpur ACC and was lost about the same time on radar at Ho Chi Minh ACC, which reported that the aircraft was at the nearby waypoint BITOD. Air traffic control uses secondary radar, which relies on a signal emitted by a transponder on each aircraft; therefore, the transponder was no longer functioning on Flight 370 after 01:21. The final transponder data indicated that the aircraft was flying at its assigned cruise altitude of flight level 350 and was travelling at true airspeed. There were few clouds around this point, and no rain or