Memorable milestones in a year of searching for MH370
It has been a year since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014.
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| One year on, the fate of MH370 remains a mystery. Source: www.npc.org.my |
The Boeing 777-200, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, on a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radar screens after departing at 00:41 on March 8 (local time) and was expected to arrive in Beijing at 6:30 the same day.
Passengers on the flight included 38 Malaysians, 153 Chinese nationals, seven Indonesians, seven Australians, three French, three Americans, two New Zealanders, two Ukrainians, two Canadians, one Russian, one Italian, one Taiwanese, one Dutch and one Austrian.
The plane disappeared 120 nautical miles east of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah state in the South China Sea, and there was no distress signal from the plane.
A large-scale search operation both in the air and under the sea was launched immediately after the plane went missing with the participation of 26 countries around the world, including Vietnam.
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Here are some memorable milestones in the search for MH370 over the past year:
- March 8, 2014 (first day): Search and rescue operations for the missing plane were launched in the East Sea at 5:30 a.m.
- March 9, 2014: The search area was expanded to the Strait of Malacca after it was confirmed that the plane had returned. Several countries, including Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and the United States, deployed personnel and assets to support the search and rescue (SAR) operation.
- March 15, 2014 (Day 8): Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the last communication between the plane and the satellite system could have been in one of two flight corridors: the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and the southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. 26 countries have participated in this phase of the search over an area of 2.24 million square miles.
- March 24, 2014 (Day 17): Prime Minister Najib, in an emergency press conference, announced that data released by British satellite company Inmarsat concluded that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean and that Australia would lead search operations there.
- April 1, 2014 (25th): The Australian Government launched the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) to coordinate the search for MH370.
- April 3, 2014: Prime Minister Najib arrived in Perth, Australia to inspect the multinational search for MH370, and met with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott on the issue.
- April 4, 2014: JACC announced that the search for MH370 entered a new phase, searching underwater in the southern Indian Ocean to track the "ping" signal of the black box.
- July 31, 2014 (Day 146): JACC said that the Zhu Kezhen and Fugro vessels conducting the seventh arc bathymetric survey in the southern Indian Ocean are progressing.
- October 21, 2014 (day 227): Malaysia's contracted ship, GO Phoenix, joined the search operation along with two ships Fugro Discovery and Fugro Equator previously contracted between Malaysia and Australia.
- January 29, 2015 (Day 326): Director General of the Department of Civil Aviation of Malaysia (DCA) Abdul Rahman Azharuddin officially declared the disappearance of flight MH370 an accident, in accordance with the criteria in Annexes 12 and 13 of the Chicago Convention, and that all 239 passengers and crew on board the flight were presumed dead.
- February 12, 2015: The Malaysian government discussed with China adding more ships to search for MH370. Previously, four ships had participated.
- February 25, 2015 (day 353): JACC said that the search force for MH370 in a remote area in the Indian Ocean has scanned more than 24,000 square kilometers of the seabed, equivalent to 40% of the total priority search area.
- March 6, 2015 (day 362): Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai reaffirmed that the Malaysian Government will continue to search for MH370 and expressed confidence that the plane's location will be found.
MAS compensates families of MH370 passengers and crew
Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said on March 7 that following the announcement of the accident, the airline can now make full compensation payments. The airline will contact the families and discuss compensation with the insurance company. On January 29, the Malaysian government declared the disappearance of flight MH370 an accident under international aviation regulations and all 239 passengers and crew were presumed dead. Immediately after this announcement, MAS informed all relatives of passengers and crew about the full compensation payment. They can contact MAS at any time and MAS is ready to proceed with the compensation. "This money is so that families can continue their normal lives after losing their loved ones. I know this is a difficult time for everyone. We will help them in the best way we can, in whatever is reasonable and we will try our best," said Mr Ahmad Jauhari. He stressed that supporting the welfare of the passengers and crew has been at the heart of all MAS actions since the plane went missing and this support will continue even after the first anniversary of MH370's disappearance. |
According to Vietnam+