Australian investigators from the Four Corners team have pointed out numerous errors by Malaysian Airlines before the Boeing with 239 people on board went missing on 8 March 2014, The Daily Express reports, citing the documentary “MH370: Lost".
The team pointed to differences between later satellite and radar data analysis and the information that the company told traffic control right after the plane went missing. The later radar data analysis revealed that the MH370 had suddenly changed course, as it flew back across Malaysia and headed towards the southern Indian Ocean. But 40 minutes after the aircraft checked in for the last time at 1.19 am on 8 March 2014, a Malaysia Airlines staffer told air traffic control that the Boeing was in Cambodian airspace.
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The company confirmed that MH370 was in Cambodian airspace 13 minutes later, at 2.15 am, and again at 2.35 am, giving coordinates.
“Malaysia Airlines not only released misleading information, but they also did so even before trying to contact MH370. They did not make the first attempt until 2.39 am”, the investigation team revealed, saying that the missing aircraft was assumed to be in Cambodian airspace until 3.30 am, when a correction came through.
Only then was the search initiated.
“Malaysia Airlines Operations Centre informed Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre the flight tracker information was based on flight projection and not reliable for aircraft positioning. Another two hours then passed until Kuala Lumpur activated Air Search and Rescue”, the Four Corners team claimed.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 people and crew on board, disappeared on 8 March 2014 on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, while flying from Malaysian towards Vietnamese air space. An extensive underwater search produced no results, although pieces of the doomed Boeing's debris have been found off the coast of Madagascar and Australia.
After four years of unsuccessful attempts to locate the plane, the Malaysian government abandoned its search in May 2018, admitting that they did not know what happened to the plane. However, search enthusiasts are still trying to trace the debris of the plane and uncover the chain of events that led to the tragic disappearance.