MH370 Timeline - End Of Flight
Flight MH370 Timeline - End of Flight
After MH370 turned south toward the South Indian Ocean the aircraft continued flying until running out of fuel.
What we know is limited to data from some satellite communications as shown in this Section
End of Flight
Malaysia Airlines ODC sent a test message to MH370, requesting an acknowledgement. The message was also re-transmitted at 0239:52 MYT, 0240:42 MYT and 0241:52 MYT. The automated response was 'failed'.
Ground-to-air telephony call placed from a number with country code 60 (Malaysia)
The GES logs show that the unanswered Ground-to-Air telephony call was cleared by the calling party.
Log-On Interrogation by the Perth GES, with a response from the SATCOM
- This is the second ‘handshake’, whereby the GES inactivity timer has expired and the GES has sent a message to interrogate the status of the SATCOM.
- The SATCOM responded normally and the SATCOM link was therefore available at this time.
Log-On Interrogation by the Perth GES, with a response from the SATCOM
- This is the third ‘handshake’.
- The SATCOM responded normally and the SATCOM link was therefore available at this time.
Log-On Interrogation by the Perth GES, with a response from the SATCOM
- This is the fourth ‘handshake’.
- The SATCOM responded normally and the SATCOM link was therefore available at this time.
Log-On Interrogation by the Perth GES, with a response from the SATCOM
- This is the fifth ‘handshake’.
- The SATCOM responded normally and the SATCOM link was therefore available at this time.
Malaysia Airlines Operations used ACARS to upload flight plan information for MH371, which is the normal return flight from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur.
The intention of this upload may have been to assist MH370 to return to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, the initiative was unsuccessful.
Ground-to-air telephony call placed from a number with country code 60 (Malaysia)
- Q10 AOC Priority Level.
- The Perth GES logs indicate that a good link is likely to have existed at this time.
- This call would have been routed to the cockpit and should have resulted in a chime and an incoming visual annunciation on the Audio Control Panels, and, if the appropriate SATCOM page was selected, then also on one or more MCDU.
- The GES logs show zero duration, indicating that the call went unanswered. Note that there are two methods for the answering of an incoming call: Either by pressing the relevant Line Select Key on an MCDU, or by keying a microphone.
The GES logs show that the unanswered Ground to Air telephony call was cleared by the calling party.
Log-On Interrogation by the Perth GES, with a response from the SATCOM
- This is the sixth ‘handshake’.
- The SATCOM responded normally and the SATCOM link was therefore available at this time.
SATCOM Log-On, initiated from the aircraft terminal. This is the seventh ‘handshake’.
- For there to have been a Log-On at this time, there must have been a prior loss of the SATCOM link. This link loss must have occurred at some time after 0010:58, when the SATCOM responded to a Log-On interrogation.
- This Log-On request suggests that whatever caused the SATCOM link loss to occur had been reversed.
SATCOM Log-On, successfully completed
- The SATCOM link becomes available (for voice and data – Class 3) once more and normal SATCOM operation resumes.
- No Flight ID was sent to the GES during the Log-On. This infers that the SDU was still not receiving the Flight ID from AIMS.
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.
