MH370: The mystery of missing airplane

8 MARCH 2014

     The date seems to become one of  the non-forgotten date in Malaysian history when an airplane owned by Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) is told to be "missing" in moment the plane crossed the Malaysia-Vietnam air boundary near South-China Sea. An airplane of Boeing 777-200ER labelled MH370 carrying 239 passengers and crew members left the KL international Airport (KLIA) at 12:41 on Saturday. About 50 minutes after its departure, the aircraft is told to be "disappeared" from the DCA's radar at 1.30 am about 120 nautical miles east off Kota Baharu, Kelantan. The missing is quite weird because the transponder, a device that is used to send signals to communication satellite of the airplane is suddenly "turned off" without any reason. This catastrophe disable the abilities of the satellite to relocate the position of the aircraft, making it difficult to be detected. To make this case more understandable, below is the chronological about the missing airplane: 

MARCH 8

•  Flight MH370 carrying 239 passengers and crew members left the KL international Airport at 12.41 a.m. on Saturday.
•  The aircraft disappeared from the DCA's radar at 1.30 a.m. about 120 nautical miles east off Kota Bahru.
• The authorities believe the plane could be had turned back to the KLIA.
•  A search and rescue operation (SAR) for the missing plane was launches at 5.30 am involving 15 Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) aircraft, including four Hercules C130, a CN 235, four EC725 and two Augusta helicopters, and nine ships, namely six from the Royal Malaysian Navy and three from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) 
• MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya confirmed the disappearance of the aircraft at 7.30 am. The passengers were made up of 38 Malaysians, Chinese (153), Indonesians (12), Australians (7), French (three), Americans (three), New Zealanders (two), Ukrainians (two), Canadians (two), Russian (one), Italian (one), Taiwanese (one), Dutch (one), and Austrian (one). 

MARCH 9

•  Armed Forces chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin said the search area was extended from the South China Sea to the Straits of Melaka. 
•  DCA director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman confirmed that two passengers boarded the aircraft with fake passports under the guise of an Italian and an Austrian who had reported that their passports had been stolen.

MARCH 10

•  Meteorological Department National Weather Centre meteorological officer Khairul Najib Ibrahim said there were no noticeable changes in the weather over the area where the plane was reported missing.
• The searching still continues but no positive founding was reported.

MARCH 11

•   The Malaysian police and Interpol disclosed that the two men travelling on stolen passports were Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 19, and Delavar Seyed Mohammad Erza, 29, with no apparent links to terrorist groups.
• They were believed to be trying to migrate to Europe. 

MARCH 12

• Hishammuddin clarified a number of issues: the possibility of flight MH370 flew past the Strait of Melaka, cooperation of foreign aviation experts, and flight MH370 manifest.

MARCH 13

• India,Japan and Brunei involved in searching missing flight MH 370 and the total involved,12 country included Malaysia.
• 42 ship and 39 military air craft are use in operation of searching missing flight MH370. 

MARCH 14

• Operation of searching missing flight MH370 has focus towards strait of Melaka from Teluk Thailand until the southwest strait of Melaka.

MARCH 15

• A missing Malaysian jetliner was likely steered deliberately to a course that could have taken it anywhere from central Asia to the southern Indian Ocean.
• Earlier, a source familiar with official U.S. assessments of electronic signals sent to geostationary satellites operated by Britain's Inmarsat said it appeared most likely the plane turned south over the Indian Ocean, where it would presumably have run out of fuel and crashed into the sea.
• The other interpretation was that the aircraft continued to fly to the northwest and headed over Indian territory.

MARCH 16

• Malaysian investigators are trawling through the backgrounds of the pilots, crew and ground staff who worked on a missing jetliner for clues. 
• Police special branch officers searched the homes of the captain, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, in middle-class suburbs of Kuala Lumpur close to the international airport.
• An experienced pilot, Zaharie has been described by current and former co-workers as a flying enthusiast who spent his off days operating a life-sized flight simulator he had set up at home.
•  Investigators had taken the flight simulator for examination by experts.

MARCH 17

• The co-pilot of a missing Malaysian jetliner spoke the last words heard from the cockpit.
• The last radio message from the plane an informal "all right, good night"  was spoken after the system, known as "ACARS", was shut down.
•  Initial investigations indicate it was the co-pilot who basically spoke the last time it was recorded on tape.
• That was a sign-off to air traffic controllers at 1.19 a.m., as the Beijing-bound plane left Malaysian airspace.

     There a lot of theories that have been connected with the missing airplane, including that the airplane have been hijacked. But yet, we still can't conclude anything because we don't know what actually happen to the plane. With the help from various countries in order to find the airplane, all we can do is just pray for the safety of the passengers and the cabin crews. To actually spared five minutes and pray to God. Pray, not only that the plane can be found, or that the passengers and crews are safe, but also to the family members and friends of those involved. Pray for their strength, so that they could accept whatever news that awaits them in the future. Pray that they will be able to hear the news, whatever it may be.