ATC radio and secondary radar
Document
The last voice call and the loss of transponder returns near IGARI. These fix the moment civil control lost the flight.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety96
Mystery90
Scale78
Evidence48
Legal impact55
Culture88
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Quick answers
What was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?
A scheduled Boeing 777-200ER service, 9M-MRO, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014. It carried 227 passengers and 12 crew. It never arrived. The wreck has not been found.
When did contact end?
The last ATC voice call was shortly after 01:19 MYT near waypoint IGARI. Secondary radar then ceased. Military primary radar later showed a westward and then southward track. Inmarsat handshakes continued for hours.
Why do officials say the southern Indian Ocean?
Inmarsat handshake timing and frequency-offset analysis, announced by Malaysia on 24 March 2014 and later used by the ATSB, placed the end of flight on a southern arc. Debris later found on western Indian Ocean shores is consistent with that ocean, not with a landing in China.
Has any of the aircraft been found?
Yes, fragments. A right flaperon on Réunion in July 2015 was identified as from 9M-MRO. Other pieces were later accepted or treated as almost certain. The main wreckage and the recorders have not been located.
What did the 2018 Malaysian report conclude?
The Annex 13 safety investigation could not determine the cause. It recorded the reconstructed track, the debris and the limits of the evidence. It did not name a person as responsible.
Who led the ocean search?
After the southern-arc announcement, Australia’s JACC coordinated and the ATSB led the official seabed search west of Australia, with Malaysia and China as partners. That search ended in January 2017. Ocean Infinity searched again in 2018.
Evidence quality is strong for a diversion and a southern-ocean ending, and weak for a wreck site or a reason.
What survives is good enough to reject a simple South China Sea ditching and not good enough to name a person or a mechanism.
Exhibits
Malaysian military primary radar
Archive
A reconstructed westbound and later southbound track. Released in briefed form, it is the reason the peninsula crossing entered the official story.
Inmarsat handshake data
Technical
Hourly satellite pings and burst-frequency-offset analysis that produced the southern arc. Reviewed by an international working group; still not a seabed photograph.
Réunion flaperon and later debris
Physical
Fragments identified as from 9M-MRO, beginning with the July 2015 Réunion find. They prove Indian Ocean entry, not a precise crash latitude.
ATSB search reports
Inquiry
The planning and negative result of the 120,000-square-kilometre survey. Absence of a wreck in that box is itself a fact.
Malaysian Annex 13 report, 2018
Document
The safety investigation’s final narrative. Cause undetermined. No hidden verdict is in the published text.
How strong is the record?
Location of the wreck22
A southern-ocean corridor and drift studies; no certified airframe.
Proof the aircraft left the route88
Radar reconstructions and satellite handshakes agree on a diversion.
Cause of the diversion12
The 2018 report could not determine who acted or why.
Debris identification70
The flaperon and several later pieces are accepted as 9M-MRO.
The strongest evidence names a corridor and a few fragments. It does not name a cause.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.