Factual Information 2015:1.1 History of the Flight/1.1.1
This page contains an extract from MH370/01/15 Factual Information which accompanied the (first) Interim Statement released by The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370 on 8th March 2015.
1.1.1 Flight between 1642 to 1719:30 UTC [0042 to 0119:30]
On 07 March 2014 at 1642 UTC1 (0042 MYT, 08 March 2014), a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370, a Beijing-bound international scheduled passenger flight, departed from Runway 32R, KL International Airport [KLIA] with a total of 239 persons on board (227 passengers and 12 crew). The aircraft was a Boeing 777-200ER, registered as 9M-MRO.
The Captain had signed in for duty at 1450 UTC, 07 March 2014 (2250 MYT, 07 March 2014) followed by the First Officer who signed in 25 minutes later. The MAS Operations Despatch Centre (ODC) released the flight at around 1515 UTC (2315 MYT).
The Captain, an authorised examiner for the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Malaysia, was conducting line training for the First Officer, who was transitioning to the Boeing 777 (B777) aircraft type from the Airbus A330.
The Captain ordered 49,100 kilograms (kg) of fuel for the flight that gave an endurance of 07 hours and 31 minutes including reserves. The planned flight duration was 05 hours and 34 minutes.
The recorded radio transmissions between Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) at Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre (KL ATCC) and the flight crew showed that an airways clearance request to Lumpur Airways Clearance Delivery was made at 1625:52 UTC (0025:52 MYT) and pushback and start clearance at 1627:37 UTC (0027:37 MYT) to Lumpur Ground.
Lumpur Tower cleared MH370 for take-off at 1640:37 UTC (0040:37 MYT). At 1642:53 UTC (0042:53 MYT) Lumpur Departure cleared MH370 to climb to Flight Level (FL) 180 (the aviation term for 18,000 feet [ft.]) and to cancel the Standard Instrument Departure (SID) clearance by tracking direct to waypoint IGARI.
At 1643:31 UTC (0043:31 MYT) KL ATCC Sector 3 Planner coordinated with Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) Air Traffic Control Centre (HCM ATCC) on the direct land line, the flight’s Estimate Time of Arrival (ETA) of MH370 for waypoint IGARI as 1722 UTC (0122 MYT) and the assigned transponder code A2157.
There was no record of transmission that a revision of ETA was passed by KL ATCC to HCM ATCC when MH370 was cleared direct to waypoint IGARI. However, based on the reconstruction of the flight profile conducted on the B777 simulator, the flight would be at waypoint IGARI one minute earlier than the original ETA of 1722 UTC (0122 MYT).
It was later established that normal automated Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) transmissions (refer to Section 1.9.4 - ACARS) were made through the aircraft’s satellite communication system up to 1707:29 UTC (0107:29 MYT) when the last ACARS communication occurred.
MH370 was transferred to Lumpur Radar at 1646:39 UTC (0046:39 MYT).
At 1646:58 UTC (0046:58 MYT) MH370 was cleared to climb to FL250 and subsequently to FL350 at 1650:08 UTC (0050:08 MYT). MH370 reported maintaining FL350 at 1701:17 UTC (0101:17 MYT) and reported maintaining FL350 again at 1707:56 UTC (0107:56 MYT).
At 1719:26 UTC (0119:26 MYT), MH370 was instructed to contact HCM ATCC on the radio frequency of 120.9 MHz.
At 1719:30 UTC (0119:30 MYT), MH370 acknowledged with “Good night Malaysia 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).
The Mode S symbol of MH370 dropped off from radar display at 1720:36 UTC (0120:36 MYT), and the last secondary radar position symbol of MH370 was recorded at 1721:13 UTC (0121:13 MYT).
The disappearance of the radar position symbol of MH370 was captured by the KL ATCC radar at time 1721:13 UTC (0121:13 MYT). Military radar and radar sources from two other countries, namely Vietnam and Thailand, also captured the disappearance of the radar position symbol of MH370 at about the same time.
(Refer to Figure 1.1A - Chronological Sequence of Events of Disappearance of MH370)
1 Unless specified, all times in this report are in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Malaysian Time (MYT) is UTC +8 hours.
Source: Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370, 8 March 2015, Factual Information MH370/01/15
The Factual Information was updated in 2018 by the Safety Investigation Report MH370/01/2018 which added new content but did not include all of the previous data.