Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === <span id="Radar returns">Radar</span> === [[File:MH370 radar.jpeg|thumb|right|Data from the Malaysian military's primary radar show Flight 370 (green) crossing the Strait of Malacca and Andaman Sea to where it was last detected by radar. The left of the two segments of the flight track follows air route N571 between waypoints VAMPI and MEKAR; the white circle appears to highlight a section where the aircraft was not tracked by radar.|alt=Brown background with white lines, dots, and labels depicting air routes, waypoints, and airports. Label in the top of the image reads: "Military radar plot from Pulau Perak to last plot at 02:22H." Green specks form a trail from bottom centre to left centre that was Flight 370. As the caption explains, the path is in two parts, with a white circle around the blank area between them and appears to highlight a section where the aircraft was not tracked by radar. Label at left end of flight path reads: "Time-02:22H 295R 200nm from Butterworth AB"]] At 01:20:31 MYT, Flight 370 was observed on radar at the Kuala Lumpur ACC as it passed the navigational [[Waypoint#In aviation|waypoint]] IGARI ({{coord|6|56|12|N|103|35|6|E|display=inline|dim:1000km|name=Waypoint IGARI}}) in the [[Gulf of Thailand]]; five seconds later, the [[Secondary surveillance radar#Mode S|Mode-S]] symbol disappeared from radar screens.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|2}} At 01:21:13, Flight 370 disappeared from the radar screen at Kuala Lumpur ACC and was lost at about the same time on radar at Ho Chi Minh ACC, which reported that the aircraft was at the nearby waypoint BITOD.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|2}}<ref name="Preliminary report" /> Air traffic control uses secondary radar, which relies on a signal emitted by a [[Transponder (aeronautics)|transponder]] on each aircraft; therefore, the [[ADS-B]] transponder was no longer functioning on Flight 370 after 01:21. The final transponder data indicated that the aircraft was flying at its assigned [[Cruise (flight)|cruise]] altitude of flight level 350{{efn|name=Flight level}} and was travelling at {{convert|471|kn|km/h mph}} [[true airspeed]].<ref name="20140311theaviationist"/> There were few clouds around this point, and no rain or lightning nearby.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|33β36}} Later analysis estimated that Flight 370 had {{convert|41500|kg|lb|abbr=on}} of fuel when it disappeared from secondary radar.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|30}} At the time that the transponder stopped functioning, the Malaysian military's primary radar showed Flight 370 turning right, but then<!-- Source says: "At 1721:13 UTC [0121:13 MYT] the Military radar showed the radar return of MH370 turning right but almost immediately making a constant left turn to a South Westerly direction." --> beginning a left turn to a southwesterly direction.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|3}} From 01:30:35 until 01:35, military radar showed Flight 370 at {{convert|35700|ft|abbr=on}}{{efn|Heights given by primary radar are actual altitudes, unlike the pressure altitudes provided by secondary radar.}} on a 231Β° magnetic heading, with a ground speed of {{convert|496|kn|km/h mph}}. Flight 370 continued across the Malay Peninsula, fluctuating between {{convert|31000|and|33000|ft|abbr=on}} in altitude.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|3}} A civilian primary radar at [[Sultan Ismail Petra Airport]] with a {{convert|60|nmi|abbr=on}} range made four detections of an unidentified aircraft between 01:30:37 and 01:52:35; the tracks of the unidentified aircraft are "consistent with those of the military data".{{efn|The interim report released by Malaysia during March 2015 states: "All the primary aircraft targets that were recorded by the DCA radar are consistent with those of the military data that were made available to the Investigation Team." The report does not ''explicitly''<!-- emphasis of this term is important and should be italicised per MOS:EMPHASIS --> state that the unidentified aircraft was Flight 370.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|3β4}}}}<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|3β4}} At 01:52<!-- 01:52:35 MYT-->, Flight 370 was detected passing just south of the island of Penang. From there, the aircraft flew across the Strait of Malacca, passing close to the waypoint VAMPI, and [[Pulau Perak]] at 02:03<!-- 02:02:59 MYT -->, after which it flew along air route N571 to waypoints MEKAR, NILAM, and possibly IGOGU.<ref name=ATSB />{{Rp|3, 38}} The last known radar detection, from a point near the limits of Malaysian military radar, was at 02:22, {{convert|10|nmi|abbr=on}} after passing waypoint MEKAR<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|3, 7}} (which is {{convert|237|nmi|abbr=on}} from Penang) and {{convert|247.3|nmi|abbr=on}} northwest of Penang airport at an altitude of {{convert|29500|ft|abbr=on}}.<ref name="AutoVQ-2"/><ref name="AutoVQ-66"/> Countries were reluctant to release information collected from military radar because of sensitivity about revealing their capabilities. [[Indonesia]] has an [[early-warning radar]] system, but its ATC radar did not register any aircraft with the transponder code used by Flight 370, despite the aircraft possibly having flown near, or over, the northern tip of Sumatra.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|4}}<ref name="Preliminary report" /> Indonesian military radar tracked Flight 370 earlier when ''en route'' to waypoint IGARI before the transponder is thought to have been turned off, but did not provide information on whether it was detected afterwards.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|4}}<ref name=WSJ-radar /> Thailand and Vietnam also detected Flight 370 on radar before the transponder stopped working. The radar position symbols for the transponder code used by Flight 370 vanished after the transponder is thought to have been turned off.<ref name="Interim report-March 2015" />{{Rp|4β5}} Vietnam's deputy minister of transport Pham Quy Tieu stated that Vietnam had noticed MH370 turning back toward the west and that its operators had twice informed Malaysian authorities the same day on 8 March.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/vietnam-says-it-told-malaysia-that-missing-plane-mh370-had-turned-back |title=Vietnam says it told Malaysia that missing plane MH370 had turned back |work=[[The Straits Times]] |date=12 March 2014 |access-date=21 April 2019 |archive-date=5 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305231839/https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/vietnam-says-it-told-malaysia-that-missing-plane-mh370-had-turned-back |url-status=live }}</ref> Thai military radar detected an aircraft that might have been Flight 370, but it is not known at what time the last radar contact was made, and the signal did not include identifying data.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-thailand-gives-radar-data-10-days-after-plane-lost-20140318-hvk7i.html |title=Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: Thailand gives radar data 10 days after plane lost |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |last=Doksone |first=Thanyarat |date=19 March 2014 |access-date=7 July 2017 |archive-date=30 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830155007/http://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-thailand-gives-radar-data-10-days-after-plane-lost-20140318-hvk7i.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Also, the flight was not detected by Australia's conventional system<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/fragment/how-could-australian-radar-miss-flight-mh370 |title=How could Australian radar miss flight MH370? |date=26 March 2014 |publisher=[[Special Broadcasting Service]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319111421/https://www.sbs.com.au/news/fragment/how-could-australian-radar-miss-flight-mh370 |archive-date=19 March 2017}}</ref> or its long-range [[Jindalee Operational Radar Network|JORN]] [[over-the-horizon radar]] system, which has an official range of {{cvt|3000|km}}; the latter was not in operation on the night of the disappearance.<ref name="JORN-FAQ" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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