The mystery surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines plane

Mystery: the Malaysia Airlines plane that was never found - A plane weighs thousands of kilos and is controlled by a series of mechanisms. So how can such a huge object just disappear overnight?
The mystery surrounding the vanishing of the MH370 flight still torments a lot of people, most of all the passengers' relatives and friends.
Learn all about the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight.

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Take-off - March 8, 2014: Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 heading to Beijing departs from the Kuala Lumpur airport.

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On board - In total there were 239 people on board.

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Nationalities - Nationalities on the plane included Chinese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Ukrainian, New Zealander, Malaysian, Australian, Indian, French, American, Canadian and Iranian.

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Passengers - According to Malaysia Airlines, there were five children among the passengers.

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Nightmare - Forty minutes after take-off, the plane loses contact with all control towers.

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No record - Before they disappeared from the radar, the crew hadn't reported anything wrong with the plane. In the early hours of March 8, the plane disappeared without a trace.

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Searches - Soon after, searches and investigations began.

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Mystery - The plane's automatic system also didn't send a faulty alert.

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Revelations - During the preliminary investigations, an interesting bit of information came about: the plane's loss of contact with the towers may not have been accidental.

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Intentional? - According to the National Post, investigators believe there is evidence someone may have shut off the communication systems and diverted the plane.

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Crash site - The most likely thing, according to investigators, is that the plane fell in a remote area in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

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Solidarity - Australia, Malaysia and China lead the intense searches for the lost plane, but 25 countries have been involved too.

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New hint - Malaysia's air force said the plane was detected flying over the Strait of Malacca after it lost contact with the tower.

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Different route - That was not part of the original route, which raises suspicions.

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Suspects - Authorities found out that two Iranians got on board with fake passports, which raises questions about a terrorist plot.

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Crime - The documents had been stolen from an Italian and a Swiss man months before.

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Terrorism - According to TIME magazine, the airline bosses discarded the possibility of the plane having being overtaken by terrorists.

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Check-in - Another curious fact is that five passengers checked in but never got on the plane.

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Denied theory - Malaysian authorities rejected the theory that the plane detected flying over the Strait of Malacca was the MH370.

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Media - On March 13, 2014, the Wall Street Journal published an article claiming there was a chance the plane flew for another four hours after it lost contact.

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New route - That would be enough time for the plane to make it to distant places like Mongolia or Pakistan.

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Conspiracy theory - But again, Malaysian authorities dismissed that theory.

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Signal - The passengers' relatives contacted their family members through cell phone and claimed they heard some sort of signal.

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Signal - According to them, even three days after the crash, some phones appeared online on the Chinese text message service QQ, according to TIME magazine.

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Verdict - On March 24, the Malaysian Prime Minister confirmed that, without a doubt, the plane had crashed in the Indian Ocean and there were no survivors.

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Mystery continues - So where are the remains?

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Proof - In 2015, a strange object was found on Réunion Island, near Madagascar.

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Wreckage - Authorities reached the conclusion that it was probably part of the wreckage from the plane, but there is still some uncertainty regarding it.

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Explosion - An employee at an oil platform said he saw something in flames over the South China Sea.

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Aliens? - TIME magazine said that some internet forums and blogs claimed the plane was abducted by aliens.

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Reasons - An online conspiracy theory also says the plane was brought down in order to kill Chinese scientists.

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Scientists - According to that theory, the scientists had in their possession a pharmaceutical patent that was considered revolutionary.

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What do you think? - How about you? How do you think flight MH370 disappeared?

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