The last radio transmission from the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 included the words “Good Night. Malaysian Three Seven Zero.” This transmission was made less than an hour after the aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Minutes later, the plane disappeared from air-traffic control radar screens. The Boeing Co 777 jet disappeared from sight and there were 239 people on board.
An extensive search operation was carried out in the southern Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles off Australia’s western seaboard. However, no trace of the main fuselage or any passengers and crew was found. Only a few fragments of the 777 washed ashore years later on the east African coast.
With no mayday call, known flight path or wreckage, MH370 remains one of modern aviation’s biggest mysteries. A plan was put in place to ensure that a similar incident does not occur again. However, 10 years later, progress has been hindered by bureaucracy and financial pressure, and there is still a significant gap in aviation safety protocols.
Aircraft-tracking tools and safety regulations have been proposed to prevent a similar incident from occurring. A key tracking tool was proposed by Malaysian authorities shortly after the disaster, but it has yet to be implemented. Additionally, the industry has saved hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment costs, but there is still a major gap in aviation safety protocols, leaving room for a doomed passenger jet in a remote corner of the planet to remain hidden indefinitely.
The rule that new jets should broadcast their position at least every minute if they are in trouble was meant to give authorities early warning of a disaster. However, the implementation of this rule has been delayed twice, and it was initially supposed to be in force in January 2021 but has been postponed to January 2025.
The delay since the disappearance of MH370 has been criticized as unacceptable, and it has been noted that the tracking rule only applies to new aircraft, with no requirement to install the relevant technology on the older planes currently in service.
The role of the MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah has been a major focus of the mystery surrounding the incident. The plane’s deliberate deviation from its route and subsequent crash in the southern Indian Ocean is detailed in the final report, but a definitive conclusion has not been reached.
The tragic toll of the incident is highlighted in the forensic detail included in the 450-page final report, which lists the seat numbers, gender, nationality, and other details of the passengers and crew on board MH370.
The report makes an appeal to the international aviation community to ensure that the location of commercial aircraft is always known, citing that it is unacceptable to do otherwise. The one-minute tracking rule was designed to address this issue by aiming to narrow down a crash site to within a six-nautical-mile radius.
Despite the delays and hurdles, the push for continuous tracking of commercial flights is ongoing. Off-the-shelf products that track commercial flights continuously are available, and the hope is that incidents like the disappearance of MH370 will never happen again.
ICAO lays down clear requirements for in-flight one-minute tracking devices for aircraft in trouble, aiming to ensure that devices triggered automatically cannot be manually turned off. Airbus has introduced an emergency locator transmitter system meeting these requirements and has fitted it on all new widebody aircraft delivered since April 2023. However, this capability was not present on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Overall, MH370 remains a significant aviation mystery, and the search for solutions to prevent similar incidents continues.
