Overview
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight which departed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China on March 8th, 2014, before disappearing off radar with 227 passengers 12 crew members on board less than an hour after the take-off.
Background
On March 8th, 2014, 12:41 a.m. local time, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing, China, carrying 227 passengers of 13 nationalities, including 153 Chinese nationals, and 12 Malaysian crew members. At around 1:30 a.m., less than an hour into the flight, air traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur reported that they lost contact with the plane after the transponder signal went offline over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam.
image courtesy: CNN | Google Maps
According to the officials, there were no indications of bad weather, technical problems or a distress signal from the crew at the time of its disappearance. The trip was expected to last about six hours over the distance of 2,700 miles (4,350 kilometers).
Notable Developments
Search and Rescue Mission
By 7:24 a.m., about an hour after the flight’s scheduled arrival time at the Beijing International Airport, Malaysia Airlines had issued a statement confirming that the plane is considered lost and a search-and-rescue operation is underway. In responding to the crisis, the Malaysian government and fourteen other nations dispatched dozens ships and planes to the area. In the following days, numerous sightings of potential plane debris and oil slicks were reported, but upon examination, they were determined to be insubstantial.
Online Reactions
Meanwhile on Twitter, people reacted to the news with messages of prayers and wishes for the passengers using hashtags #PrayForMH370 and #MH370[6], peaking at 800,000 and 1.2 million tweets per day[5] on March 8th. On Reddit, Redditor Mrgandaw began compiling the latest updates and official announcements in a series of posts titled “Comprehensive timeline: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370” on /r/news.[4]
Hoaxes and Theories
Shortly after the search mission began, various rumors about the fate of the passengers began to spread online in China, including a news article saying the plane had made a safe emergency landing in Nanning and mass speculations that passengers may have survived as indicated by their active cell phone signal and online status on instant messaging services. As the search mission continued for several days with little result, online discussions[8][9][10] about the flight ran amok with unfounded theories[10] surrounding its whereabouts and fate, including references to the ABC drama series Lost and the Bermuda triangle, as well as conspiracy theories involving aliens, Edward Snowden, the Iranians and the North Koreans and even the Illuminati.
Crowdsearch Efforts
On March 12th, Colorado-based commercial satellite firm DigitalGlobe[2] launched an online crowd-search mission where anyone can scour through aerial photographs of the region covering 1,235 square miles to look for signs of potential survivors, rafts or plane debris that would lead to any clues surrounding the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370’s disappearance. Shortly after its launch, the website reportedly became inaccessible as a result of a sudden and massive spike in traffic.
Search Interest
External References
[1]Wikipedia – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
[2]Tomnod – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Search
[3]CNN– Crowdsourcing volunteers comb satellite photos for Malaysia Airlines jet
[4]Reddit – Comprehensive timeline: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
[5]Topsy – Tweets Per Day – #PrayforMH370 and #MH370
[6]Twitter – Tweet results for #MH370
[7]Reddit – Malaysia Airlines Plane ‘Loses Contact’
[8]New York Times – Theories Grow Without Facts on Lost Flight
[9]NBC News – Social Media Spread False Reports of Safe Landing
[10]Boston – 9 crazy conspiracy theories about Malaysia Airlines flight 370