Malaysia's missing MH370 plane: What we know, 10 years on

KUALA LUMPUR: The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 ten years ago with 239 people on board remains one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

The Boeing 777 went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Satellite data analysis showed the plane likely crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, off the coast of western Australia. However, two major searches failed to come up with any significant findings.

Here are some details of the search for MH370 and the unresolved mystery of what happened:

WHAT IS KNOWN

The last transmission from the plane was about 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off with "Good night, Malaysian three seven zero", as the plane entered Vietnamese air space.

Shortly thereafter, its transponder was turned off, which meant it could not be easily tracked.

Military radar showed the plane left its flight path to fly back over northern Malaysia and Penang island, and then out into the Andaman Sea towards the tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It then turned south and all contact was lost.

UNDERWATER SEARCHES

Malaysia, Australia and China launched an underwater search in a 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq miles) area in the southern Indian Ocean, based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane.

The search, which cost about A$200 million ($143 million), was called off after two years in January 2017 with no traces of the plane found.

In 2018, Malaysia accepted a "no-cure, no-fee" offer from U.S. exploration firm Ocean Infinity for a three-month search, meaning the company would only get paid if it found the plane.

That search covered 112,000 sq km (43,243 square miles) north of the original target area and also proved fruitless, ending in May 2018.