MH370 Timeline - Departure To Loss Of Contact
Flight MH370 Timeline - Departure to Loss of Contact
The departure of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Saturday, 8 March 2014 was routine.
This stage of the timeline provides a chronology of events from Departure to the 'loss of contact' in the vicinity of the waypoint IGARI.
Departure to Loss of Contact
Saturday, 8 March 2014
On Saturday, 8 March 2014 Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 departed from Runway 32 Right, KL International Airport (KLIA) at 00:42 MYT.
The Boeing 777-200ER, registered as 9M-MRO carried a total of 239 persons on board (227 passengers and 12 crew). The aircraft was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day.
ACARS sent an OOOI B777 OFF Report at 00:41:43 MYT, triggered by a switch on the nose wheel asssembly at take-off. A position report was also generated at this time.
After take-off, the IFE SMS e-mail application sent a Departure Message via the SATCOM. This message recorded the official departure time as 1642 UTC Friday, 7 March 2014 (0042 MYT Saturday, 8 March 2014).
The Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS) generated an Engine Health Monitoring (EHM) Report, 15 seconds after the Off-the-Ground Report. The Take-off Report would be transmitted via ACARS at 00:42:43 MYT to MAS, who would then submit the Report to the engine manufacturer Rolls Royce.
The Take-off Report generated by the Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS) at 00:41:58 MYT was sent by ACARS to MAS over a satellite communications datalink.
Lumpur Departure cleared MH370 to climb to 18,000 feet and to cancel the Standard Instrument Departure (SID) clearance by tracking direct to waypoint IGARI.
At 1643:31 UTC (0043:31 MYT), KL ACC Sector 3 Planner coordinated with Ho Chi Minh (Viet Nam) Area Control Centre (HCM ACC) on the Direct Speech Circuit (direct telephone line) relaying the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of MH370 for waypoint IGARI as 1722 UTC (0122 MYT) and the assigned Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) transponder code A2157.
At 1646:58 UTC (0046:58 MYT), MH370 was cleared to climb to FL250 (25000 feet).
The Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS) generated the second Engine Health Monitoring (EHM) Report, a Climb Report.
The Climb Report would be transmitted via ACARS at 00:55:58 MYT to MAS, who would then submit the Report to the engine manufacturer Rolls Royce.
The Climb Report generated by the Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS) at 00:52:21 MYT was sent to MAS by ACARS over a satellite communications datalink.
A Position Report was sent by ACARS over a satellite communication link at 1707:29 UTC (01:07:29 MYT).
This Report collated data generated at 5-minute intervals - at 00:41:43, 00:46:43, 00:51:43, 00:56:43, 01:01:43, and 01:06:43 MYT. Position reports were programmed to be transmitted every 30 minutes.
After this Position Report was sent there were no further ACARS transmissions from the aircraft.
Last DATA-2 ACARS Message received at the GES. No further SATCOM Data-2 ACARS messages or acknowledgements were received at the GES for the remainder of the flight. This is abnormal and suggests that the on-board ACARS equipment either failed, or was disabled or powered down at some time between 1707:48 and around 1825:00.
MH370 was tracked by HCM ACC Secondary Radar; and Automatic Dependent Surveillance- Broadcast (ADS-B); as it was heading for waypoint IGARI.
At 1719:26 UTC (0119:26 MYT), MH370 was instructed to contact HCM ACC on the radio frequency 120.9 MHz.
At 1719:30 UTC (0119:30 MYT), MH370 acknowledged with “Good night Malaysian Three Seven Zero”. This was the last recorded radio transmission from MH370.
Radar recording showed that MH370 passed through waypoint IGARI at 1720:31 UTC (0120:31 MYT).
This was earlier than would be expected by Ho Chi Minh ACC (0122 MYT), and sooner than predicted by a flight reconstruction in a B777 simulator (0121 MYT).
The Mode S symbol of MH370 dropped off from radar display at 1720:36 UTC (0120:36 MYT).
The radar position symbol of MH370 disappeared at 1721:13 UTC (0121:13 MYT). The KL ACC radar and the Bangkok radar both recorded the target drop at 1721:13 UTC (0121:13 MYT).
MH370 was 3.2 nm beyond waypoint IGARI when the SSR radar position symbol of MH370 dropped off from ATC radar display.
Military radar (Primary Radar) showed the radar return of MH370 turning right but shortly after, making a constant left turn to heading of 273°, flying parallel to Airway M765 to VKB (Kota Bharu).
KL ACC Radar also captured the disappearance of MH370 at 1721:13 UTC [0121:13 MYT] but this was not noticed by the Duty KL ACC Radar Controller.
MH370 was expected to arrive at waypoint IGARI at 0122 MYT (or one minute earlier, based on the reconstruction of the flight profile conducted on the B777 simulator.
This Timeline has been created by deconstructing official documents and linking these extracts in a way which simulates a chronological sequence and facilitates access to further detail and explanatory notes for time-related events in the narrative of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
