The final words of the pilot of missing plane MH370 have been revealed as the mystery remains unsolved, 12 years on.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, disappeared without a trace.

The plane contained 227 passengers and 12 crew, and last communicated with air traffic control (ATC) around 38 minutes after takeoff while flying over the South China Sea.

The aircraft vanished from ATC's secondary surveillance radar screens minutes later, but was tracked by the Malaysian military's primary radar system for another hour as it deviated westward from its planned flight path, eventually leaving radar range 200 nautical miles west-northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished without a trace. (stock image) Credit: How Foo Yeen / Getty

Nothing more was heard from the plane, and there is still no definitive cause for its disappearance, with some fearing it had been hijacked or that the crew may have been involved. All 239 on board are presumed dead.

The pilot on board the Boeing 777 was Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 52, from Penang, who'd joined Malaysia Airlines as a cadet in 1981 and had 18,365 hours of flying experience, while the co-pilot was 26-year-old First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, who'd joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007 and had 2,763 hours of flying experience.

Shah's final words to ATC came as he signed off from Malaysian airspace and prepared to cross into Vietnamese airspace, saying: "Goodnight Malaysia three seven zero."

These were the last words ever heard from the cockpit, and mystery has surrounded the communication ever since.

The case has captivated people around the world, as the mystery of how a commercial aircraft as large as a Boeing 777 could simply vanish without a trace, given how closely aircrafts can be monitored in this day and age.

Though some small pieces of wreckage believed to be from MH370 have washed up on the shores of the western Indian Ocean, the final resting place of the fuselage has never been found.

It is widely believed that the plane likely came down in the Southern Indian Ocean, and the Malaysian government has greenlit several searches for the wreckage.

It is believed that the plane likely kept flying for several hours after it "went dark" from the radar, with data indicating that it could have been airborne for a further seven hours before it ultimately vanished.

A graphic illustrating 4 scenarios that could have happened to flight MH370. Credit: Graphics 24 / Getty Images

Simon Maskell, a professor in autonomous systems at the University of Liverpool, told The Diplomat that his team had researched Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) data to learn more about the fate of MH370, using low-frequency signals tracked by amateur radio operators across vast distances.

They analyzed years of records from the WSPRnet database to come up with the three most likely scenarios for what happened to the missing aircraft.

Maskell explained to the outlet: "The analysis we did indicated that there are three explanations that appear to be approximately equally consistent with the information we had at the time: there is a chance that a freak accident occurred and the crew were unable to communicate or land the aircraft elsewhere.

"[Or] it was a murder-suicide with the murderer alive when the descent occurred, [or] a murder-suicide with the murderer no longer alive when the descent occurred."

The murder-suicide theory grained traction after Malaysian authorities discovered a flight simulator in Shah's home which contained a route remarkably similar to MH370's final known movements over the Indian Ocean.

However, there is no solid proof or suggestion that Shah or his co-pilot had premeditated plans to deliberately bring the aircraft down.

Featured image credit: How Foo Yeen / Getty Images

Potential new evidence has emerged in the search for MH370, 12 years on from its disappearance.

The Malaysia Airlines aircraft went missing on its planned route from Kuala Lumpur to the Chinese capital of Beijing, back on March 8, 2014.

There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members onboard the Boeing 777 flight, all of whom have been presumed dead since the aircraft vanished.

Over a decade on from the biggest aviation mystery of the 21st century, it still remains a mystery.

It's well documented that crew onboard failed to send any distress calls despite losing contact with air traffic control at 1:19 AM over the South China Sea.

The aircraft then veered off course and flew an unknown path for seven hours before vanishing, never to be seen again.

But according to some new evidence, teams may have been looking in the wrong place this whole time.

MH370 vanished in March 2014, never to be found again. Credit: How Foo Yeen/Getty Images

New evidence suggests new search area

Social media content creator Dr. Harini Bhat, a clinical pharmacist turned science communicator, has explained in a recent episode of series Today I Learned Science, that everything we know about MH370 may be incorrect.

She explained in a video: "In early 2014, a French researcher named Jean Yves Royer was running a network of underwater microphones across the southern Indian Ocean.

"The network is called Ohasis Bio, and it's been listening to the ocean floor since 2010 and was built to detect seabed earthquakes and track whale migration... just a few weeks after these microphones were deployed, MH370 disappeared on March 8th, 2014," Dr Bhat said.

He then realized that they may have recorded the plane's crash into the sea, but the issue was that he couldn't listen to the recordings.

The hydrophones store recordings internally before being recovered, so Royer had to wait almost a year before they floated back to the surface.

Following years of analysis, Royer's findings were handed to authorities, who chose not to include it in their public records.

Apparently, it was too similar to hydrophone data they'd already reviewed, so his findings were long a mystery.

What does it mean for the investigation?

Malaysia officially extended its agreement with seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity through mid-2027 under a "no-find, no-fee" contract, giving the company additional time windows to complete the remaining search area along the southern Indian Ocean seabed.

But while they used satellites, Royer's hydrophones were already in the water.

The creator explained: "A 2024 study by Cardiff University researcher Usama Kadri found that aircraft crashes at sea do produce acoustic signals that travel up to 3,000 miles through water.

"MH370's presumed crash zone was about 1,000 miles from the nearest hydrophone, so a signal should be detectable."

Unfortunately, she said that the global hydrophone network found nothing but a low-frequency rumble recorded west of Rottnest Island around 1:30 UTC on March 8th.

The source pointed to the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, which is far from the presumed crash site of the seventh arc - this suggested a natural event such as an underwater earthquake.

A graphic illustrating 4 scenarios that could have happened to flight MH370. Credit: Graphics 24 / Getty

Is there any hope for MH370?

"No signals near the seventh arc does not necessarily mean MH370 left no trace," Dr Bhat claimed, adding: "It completely depends on how the plane hit the water.

"A high-speed, uncontrolled impact would have been loud, but a controlled ditching, where a pilot carefully sets the aircraft down on the ocean surface, would be very quiet."

She cited research by Dr. Usama Kadri of Cardiff University regarding how crash dynamics (such as a controlled ditching versus a high-speed impact) affect underwater acoustic signals, suggesting that quieter impact profiles might explain why certain hydrophone networks missed the event.

While other hydrophones are built to monitor the world's oceans, Royers were built for the southern Indian Ocean, being more sensitive and better positioned to detect a quieter event.

Unfortunately, the hydrophone closest to MH370's presumed crash zone was lost during recovery.

She explained: "The one instrument with the best shot at detecting something near the seventh arc is gone, but the remaining hydrophone survived.

"And from those recordings, Royer identified five acoustic events in the early hours of March 8th, around the time the plane disappeared.

"Two of these overlap with sounds already in the CTBTO data. Three are new."

While some online commentators speculate that unexplained acoustic signals near the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge could point to a different crash site, official investigators previously determined that the 2014 Rottnest Island signal was consistent with natural seismic activity, reaffirming the satellite-calculated 7th Arc as the primary target area.

If correct, this could mean that teams have been searching for the plane wreckage in the wrong place for over a decade.

Featured image credit: How Foo Yeen/Getty Images

Over 12 years ago, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on its planned route from Kuala Lumpur to the Chinese capital of Beijing.

The Boeing 777 had 227 passengers and 12 crew members onboard, all of whom have been presumed dead since the aircraft disappeared on March 8, 2014.

It still remains a mystery, as crew onboard didn't send any distress calls despite losing contact with air traffic control at 1:19AM over the South China Sea on that fateful day, before veering off-course and flying an an unknown path for seven hours before vanishing.

Underwater theory on MH370's disappearance

People continue to theorise about the airplane's disappearance and while many think that the truth can be uncovered through the discovery of its black box flight recorders, they remain missing.

But back in 2024, investigators believed that an underwater pressure monitor may help to find the wreckage of the lost aircraft.

Despite it still remaining unconfirmed, the Malaysian government claimed that the flight had "ended in the Southern Indian Ocean."

Hundreds of pieces of underwater audio data were analysed by researchers at Cardiff University from previous aircraft accidents and a submarine disappearance, finding that an underwater signal could have been caused by the impact of the Boeing plane hitting the waves when crashing.

While parts of the lost aircraft have been recovered, the location of the wreckage remains a mystery. Credit: Adli Ghazali/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

How hydrophones could be used to detect MH370

Dr. Usama Kadri, a mathematician and engineer, claimed that a network of hydrophones, which have been used to keep tabs on pressure changes in the ocean as part of a nuclear explosion detection system, could be the key.

After he and his team went through large volumes of data from the time the aircraft was said to have disappeared, the doctor discovered an unidentified event in an area called the Seventh Arc.

Speaking to The Conversation, Dr. Kadri explained: "A 200-tonne aircraft crashing at a speed of 200 metres per second would release the kinetic energy equivalent to a small earthquake. It would be large enough to be recorded by hydrophones thousands of kilometres away.

"Given the sensitivity of the hydrophones, it’s highly unlikely that a large aircraft impacting the ocean surface wouldn’t leave a detectable pressure signature, particularly on nearby hydrophones."

He noted that "unfavourable" ocean conditions could still affect a signal this large though.

The engineer believed that the search would have to be approached with this method to see if these signals were linked to the missing plane, as researchers suggested that a number of controlled underwater explosions be carried out so search teams can finally find the elusive wreckage.

Over the years, many theories have been put forward, whether it be a possible hijacking or the near-impossible chance that the plane was flown into a 'black hole'.

The most recent searches took place in 2025 and 2026. Credit: Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images

Latest searches for MH370

Ocean Infinity, a UK-based marine robotics firm, carried out searches for the airplane in both March 25–28 last year and in December 31 to January 23 this year.

Unfortunately, no wreckage was found apart from numerous pieces of marine debris.

The firm splashed $67.2 million on advanced technology and resources, with the search taking place over 7,571 square kilometers on the seabed of the Indian Ocean.

They carried the search out on a no-find, no-fee basis, as Malaysia's Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, had claimed they would have been awarded $70 million if they found the missing aircraft.

Ocean Infinity said in a statement this year: “The search activities undertaken have not yielded any findings that confirm the location of the aircraft wreckage.

“The government pays nothing unless the aircraft is found. Any request by Ocean Infinity to extend the search contract should therefore be granted without hesitation,” they added.

The firm then urged the government to offer the same deal to other "capable deep sea exploration companies.”

Featured image credit: How Foo Yeen/Getty Images

An expert has claimed that the pilot in charge of the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have deliberately buried the plane in a sea trench so it was never found.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared over the South China Sea on March 8, 2014, and has never been found, with only minimal parts of the wreckage ever recovered in the 10 years since the tragedy.

The Boeing 777 vanished 39 minutes after it left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 passengers and crew members on board, with the reason for its disappearance remaining a mystery.

Expert Simon Hardy, a British pilot who was brought on board by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in 2015 to help find the missing plane, revealed he believes the pilot had planned to kill everyone on board by perfectly ditching the aircraft in a part of the ocean where it would never be found.

Hardy told The Sun that he believed that the 53-year-old pilot of the doomed flight, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, aimed to bury the plane in the Geelvinck Fracture Zone, a trench running hundreds of miles under the southern Indian Ocean, killing himself and everyone on board.

While Hardy was unable to prove his theory before the search was called off in 2017, the FBI came to a similar conclusion during the initial investigation.

The area where he believes the plane went down, based on using the best flight simulators in the world to pinpoint its location, is earthquake-prone and would make it almost impossible for the aircraft to be found.

He told the outlet: "If you did manage to get [the plane] in there, you might find you get it buried after a few years by rocks, so it might even be at the bottom of the sea, covered."

Part of the reason Hardy believes Shah planned to down the plane is that he had requested additional fuel and extra oxygen for the cockpit but not the carbon before taking off, as well as the fact there was barely any debris and unusual satellite signs, known as "handshakes."

The extra fuel and oxygen would have allowed Shah to fly the plane without being detected for an additional seven hours, reaching the middle of nowhere, with the passengers and the rest of the crew falling unconscious before he ditched it into the ocean, according to Hardy.

He explained: "Imagine Miracle on the Hudson but everyone is already dead. Nobody gets out and it sinks to the bottom of the Southern Indian Ocean.

"Where does all the wreckage go? Well, there isn’t any, that’s why we’ve been deprived of wreckage."

Only a small number of parts of the missing plane have ever been recovered, with a part of the wing known as a flaperon washing up on the island of Reunion, about 425 miles west of Madagascar.

French experts who analyzed the piece day that the flaperon had been in a downward position, which also helps to back up the theory it was intentional.

Hardy added: "If the flaps were down … then someone is moving a lever and it’s someone who knows what they are doing. It all points to the same scenario."

Shah had also reportedly run a number of flights on an at-home simulator in which the plane would run out of fuel over the Southern Indian Ocean.

He was also an expert pilot with over 20 years of experience flying Boeing 777 passenger planes around the world and was a flight instructor training in the world's best simulators.

Hardy also believes that Shah worked out exactly how much fuel he would need to be able to ditch the plane without leaving a huge, tell-tale oil slick on the surface of the ocean if there was too much on board when it went down.

"If you're of a motive to make it disappear then only one solution is to ditch it as neatly as possible, so it sinks to the bottom with all the people inside, with all the flotation devices inside, with no baggage.

"That's what you want, if you want to make it disappear, you don't crash it you ditch it."

Featured image credit: Etienne DE MALGLAIVE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The search for the missing MH370 flight is ready to start after "credible" evidence of its location has been uncovered.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The aircraft, carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers, veered off course and is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean.

Despite extensive search efforts, the plane and those onboard have never been found, fuelling countless conspiracy theories and making MH370 one of the greatest aviation mysteries of the modern era.

Well, we might be about to get some answers.

Underwater robotics company Ocean Infinity has presented a "credible" search proposal to the Malaysian government, igniting hope for closure nearly a decade after the plane’s disappearance, per the Sun.

According to company sources, Ocean Infinity has three robotic vessels standing by, ready to commence the search upon government approval.

The operation, which could launch as early as this month, is anticipated to take three months, targeting a 15,000-square-kilometer search zone off the coast of Western Australia -the last known location of the ill-fated aircraft.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, confirmed "advanced talks" with the U.S.-based marine exploration firm, stating that the proposal, submitted in June, is considered promising.

Loke added: "Based on the latest information and analysis from experts and researchers, Ocean Infinity’s search proposal is credible and can be considered by the Malaysian government as the flight’s official registrar."

The proposed operation involves a "no find, no fee" arrangement. If successful, Malaysia would incur a $70 million bill.

Loke further explained that the draft agreement is currently under review and would require cabinet approval. "Should it be finalized," he noted, "I will make a public announcement."

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett shared his commitment to the search, stating: “We now feel in a position to be able to return to the search for missing aircraft MH370 and have submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government.

"Finding MH370 and bringing some resolution for all connected with the loss of the aircraft has been a constant in our minds since we left the southern Indian Ocean in 2018.”

Among the tools that may play a role in the search is Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) technology.

Professor Simon Maskell from Liverpool University, an adviser on the project, and his team have been exploring WSPR’s potential for tracking aircraft.

Additionally, Ocean Infinity is reportedly considering hydrophone data - sounds detected by underwater microphones - adding another layer to their strategy.

Ocean Infinity is ready to deploy its high-tech fleet, currently positioned in Southeast Asia. Three specialized vessels - the Armada 7804 and 7806 in Singapore, and the 7808 in the South China Sea - are poised to begin work in the area.

The vessels can dive to depths of 6,500 feet, with the 7806 reportedly conducting preliminary trials.

The company now awaits the go-ahead from the Malaysian government.

Featured image credit: NurPhoto/Getty