Senior officials on the front-line - including the Malaysian Prime Minister, Defence Minister, and the head of Malaysian Airlines - reveal what happened behind closed doors in the situation room after Flight MH370 disappeared.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (also referred to as MH370 or MAS370) was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to its destination, Beijing Capital International Airport.
The crew of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft last communicated with air traffic control (ATC) around 38 minutes after takeoff when the flight was over the South China Sea.
The aircraft was lost from ATC radar screens minutes later, but was tracked by military radar for another hour, deviating westwards from its planned flight path, crossing the Malay Peninsula and Andaman Sea. It left radar range 200 nautical miles (370 km) northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Malaysia.
With all 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard presumed dead, the disappearance of Flight 370 was the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777 and the deadliest in Malaysia Airlines' history, until it was surpassed in both regards by Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine, four months later.
The combined loss caused significant financial problems for Malaysia Airlines, which was renationalised by the Malaysian government in December 2014.