MH370 investigation and search, 2014–2018

Investigation was first a confused regional search, then a satellite reconstruction, then a years-long seabed survey.

It is described here as what agencies did after the fact, not as a guide to leaving a route unseen.

Agencies

• Malaysia Ministry of Transport / DCA — State of registry and operator; ran the Annex 13 safety investigation and the first week’s briefings.
• Australian Transport Safety Bureau — Led the official southern Indian Ocean seabed search and published the technical search papers.
• Joint Agency Coordination Centre — Australia’s public coordination body for the southern search, chaired in the English briefings by Angus Houston.
• Inmarsat — Satellite operator whose handshake records produced the southern-arc analysis used on 24 March 2014.

What followed

1. Establish the aircraft is missing

   Hours passed on 8 March while Malaysia and Vietnam reconciled frequencies. That delay is part of the public file.

2. Search the first boxes

   Ships and aircraft worked the South China Sea and later the Strait of Malacca on early radar readings.

3. Read the satellite handshakes

   Inmarsat and investigating states turned hourly pings into a southern-arc end-of-flight estimate.

4. Move the search south

   After 24 March 2014 the official effort shifted to the Indian Ocean west of Australia under JACC and ATSB.

5. Identify beach debris

   France, Australia and others examined fragments. The Réunion flaperon became the first certified piece of 9M-MRO.

6. Publish without a wreck

   The 2017 search suspension and the 2018 safety report left cause and location open.

Turning points

• The 24 March announcement — Once Malaysia adopted the southern-ocean ending, the world’s search map changed and the South China Sea theory became a first-week episode.
• The Réunion flaperon — A physical object from 9M-MRO on a western Indian Ocean island confirmed that the satellite ocean was not only a model.
• The 2018 report — An official narrative that recorded everything known and still declined to name a cause.

The investigation found a corridor and failed to find an aircraft.

Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.

Related cases

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