The mystery of flight MH370

This week marks six years since 239 people disappeared on a journey to Beijing

- FRANCES LEATE

When Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on 8 March 2014, it was like something you’d see in a Hollywood film. The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing and simply never arrived. The 239 crew and passengers haven’t been seen or heard from since, baffling experts and shocking the world.

Six years on, the incident remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries. But as loved ones grieve, and authorities try to work out what happened, there are more questions than answers. Did it crash? If so, why? Could anyone have survived? How can a passenger jet take off and disappear into the night? Woman’s Own investigates…

‘Good night. Malaysian three seven zero’

Holidaymakers, backpackers, businessmen and women and workers piled onto Flight MH370 late one evening in March 2014 for the six-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Among them were a group of Chinese calligraphers, a martial arts expert, an engineer, a couple returning from their honeymoon and a construction worker who hadn’t been home in a year.

Aged from 24-months to pensioners in their 70s, from 14 different countries and all walks of life, those on board represented a mix of people, but one thing they all had in common was that none were ever going to arrive home.