Original subtitles

It's 12.26 a.m.

At Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Saturday, March 8th.

For air traffic control it's another hot and humid night.

On the tarmac, Malaysia airlines flight 370 is nearing take off.

Piloting the plane is 53 year old Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

More than 18,000 hours flying experience.

An unblemished flying record.

A thirty year veteran of the airline.

Zaharie was an invisible pilot, now all pilots in the airline

Like to be invisible, meaning bosses don’t know about them,

Meaning they just go, do their work well, pass all their exams.

Inside the cockpit seated to Captain Zaharie's

right, is 27 year old Fariq Abdul Hamid.

Radioing air traffic control, it's his first stint co-piloting

a Boeing 777 aircraft, without a check co-pilot supervising.

It sounds quite normal.

It tends to be very ready

communications can be quite relaxed.

You know, there is a protocol, but you know it can be

quite relaxed particularly when things are going normally.

Around 2 hours earlier, while

the plane was being prepared for flight

227 passengers from 14 nations, including Australia,

began checking in at Kuala Lumpur airport.

Two thirds are Chinese nationals,

all bound for Beijing.

At 12:41 a.m.; MH370 is ready to fly.

Flying conditions are almost perfect.

Minimal wind and cloud forecast for the 6 hour flight.

The 4,500km flight path would

normally take MH 370 over Vietnam.

Crossing the coast of mainland China, just

west of Hong Kong, and then into Beijing.

An easy trip for the Boeing 777 plane, which had

passed its maintenance check just 12 days earlier.

The 777, how would you describe its safety record?

Its safety record has been exemplary for,

a modern jet airliner.

The 777, you know, you cant get lost even if you tried.

It is that good.

It's a very very good aeroplane.

At 1:19 a.m., MH370 is cruising at 35,000 feet,

a Boeing 777's optimal altitude.

As it approaches Vietnam's airspace, exiting Malaysia's.

Controllers direct the pilots to make the routine

switch to air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City.

Seconds later a male voice inside the cockpit responds.

This is the last time anyone will hear from MH370,

a final goodbye from the doomed midnight flight.

Within minutes without notifying anyone on the ground,

MH370 veers radically off its regular flight path to Beijing.

The only reason for deviating from an intended track,

is either for weather, or for some, you know, air

traffic control requirement, because of some problem.

Neither of those?

Neither of those are a factor.

5 hours later, at 6:30 a.m., MH370 is due to

land at Beijing International Airport.

But it is nowhere to be found.

I mean it's without precedent, how can,

a modern jet airliner just.. pfft disappear.

At 7:24 a.m., Malaysia Airlines release a statement on Facebook.

Malaysia Airlines confirms that flight MH370 has lost

contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2:40 a.m. today.

The world is unaware that MH 370 is actually still flying.

Oh yes, yes, yes, it was just running out of fuel.

I was just having 6 tonnes of fuel in tanks.

Yes it was flying.

As we turned on our televisions that plane was still in the air?

Chilling... when I got the message on my phone,

the aeroplane was still airborne, it's chilling.

Unaware of the fate of their loved ones, distressed

relatives begin to arrive at Kuala Lumpur Airport

Fuck you.

A nation starts praying for the planes safe return.

Over the following days, government officials struggle

under pressure with little information to release.

Nearly 300 different news

agencies descend on Kuala Lumpur,

all desperate for answers.

Then after a few days of flip flop, and refusal to release

critical information, people are becoming more cynical.

The governments press conferences are

quickly overrun, by a furious media pack

Soon the doors are closed on the media,

fuelling claims of conspiracy and cover-up.

You say it's a conspiracy.

Conspiracy merely to protect the people who

have not done the job they are supposed to do.

And who hasn't done their job?

I guess the people who are, who are on duty that night.

The airforce, Malaysian Airlines,

the Kuala Lumpur Airport Authority,

I mean it's a good number of agencies involved.

So how did MH370 and everyone on board vanish without

a trace, when so many eyes were watching it that night.

What sort of mystery is this?

It's huge, it's huge, it just doesn't

These sort of events just don’t happen.

The mystery of flight 370, begins just after 1:19 a.m.

Around 90 seconds after the final good night.

This 90 seconds is very key, this 90 seconds

actually defines, the whole of MH370's going missing.

That 90 seconds.

At 1:21 a.m., MH 370's transponder,

is turned off or fails.

Located on the centre console of the flight

deck the transponder is the planes main mode

of identification by air traffic control,

using civilian secondary radar on the ground.

It's actually a positive response to the ground

and it contains information like, the aircraft

height, speed, flight number and its destination.

Four Corners has spoken to more than

a dozen 777 pilots, all of them agree unless

there is the malfunction the transponder

should never be turned of during flight.

There is no reason I can think of, operational reason,

that the aircraft would have that transponder turned off.

There is no reason to do so.

Could that be done accidentally?

No.

I do not know who switched off the transponder,

but certainly that

diabolical act started with

the switching off of that transponder

Around the same time Four Corners

understands someone in the cockpit

began interfering with the in-flight entertainment system.

And a second key data messaging system also stops transmitting.

The Aircraft Communications Addressing

and Reporting System, ACARS.

It would give information about the various pressures, and

temperatures within the engine, oil levels, speeds of rotation.

ACARS records and transmits the health of the plane during

flight, and it's designed to never be turned off in the air.

If it's something that somebody wished to do,

as a positive step,

then you would have to research how it was going to be achieved.

So you need to know what your doing? - Exactly

It just points out to one thing, human interference.

The question is, did someone in the cockpit

deliberately turn the transponder and the ACARS off?

Or were both systems both disabled

by a fire or malfunction on-board?

Do you believe that this was human

intervention, or do you believe it's

possible that the communications systems

were knocked out by say a fire?

Yeah it could have been, quite easily.

So where would the fire have been in order

to strike out those communications?

The electronics bay, which is right

beneath where the pilots sit.

If there was a fire or an explosion on

board could the plane continue to fly?

it's beyond the bounds of probability.

In my view.

There is no mechanical malfunction that

enables an aircraft to fly, but kills radio.

And fly, is not just fly, this is flying for the next 7 hours.

With ACARS off what does that actually mean,

in that now the transponder and ACARS is off.

Your slowly shutting off the methods of

communication between the aircraft and the ground.

Only a few people on board MH370

had the skill and the knowledge

to take over the plane and shut down its communications systems,

early on one person in particular

stood out, the captain.

Captain Zaharie has the best

opportunity and certainly capability,

opportunity meaning that he has control

over time and how events can unfold.

He is the most powerful person on that aircraft?

- Most powerful person on the aeroplane, yes indeed.

But could Captain Zaharie be a rogue pilot on

a suicide mission taking 238 people with him?

These are the last known recorded images

of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Seen here clearing security with co-pilot Fariq Hamid,

at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

moments before flying MH370.

So who is Captain Zaharie?

Hi everyone! This is a Youtube video

that I have made as a community service.

In this home video, uploaded to Facebook in January

2013, Zaharie explains how to save on electricity.

This video is to be used to optimise

your heat pump or your compressor.

Highly intelligent and technically savvy,

Captain Zaharie was also obsessed with aviation.

Joining Malaysia airlines as a cadet in 1981.

According to the companies former chief pilot,

Nick Huslan, Zaharie had an impeccable record.

What was his reputation then as a pilot?

He was methodical, methodical he kept

very good notes and he was generous.

If tabloid media reports using

unnamed sources are to be believed.

Captain Zaharie was a man on the edge,

weighed down by personal problems, a failing

marriage, in no stage to fly that night.

Captain Zaharie's family has remained silent until now.

For the first time tonight they speak publicly

in Panang with Zaharie's brother in law, Aswad Khan.

Agreeing to speak to Four Corners on

behalf of his sister Fiza, Zaharie's wife.

And how close were you two?

As a friend yeah, and as a brother-in-law, definitely.

How often did Captain Zaharie return to Panang?

Every year.

Why have you decided to speak with us?

Well because what I can see is that a lot of people

are saying a lot of things about him which is untrue.

It was reported that in the 24 hours leading up to

flight MH370 Captain Zaharie's wife had left him.

Taking their children with her to another house.

According to Captain Zaharie's brother-in-law

the rumours are completely false.

Even I don’t believe it, because she’s

at home, well the normal procedure for

what they call it,

when ever the husband flies

the wife will go to another house where

the younger son stays otherwise she will

be alone in that big house,

that’s been practised since they bought the house.

That was their routine?

Yeah their routine, you can say that.

A difficult question I need to ask you, again personal life.

All of these rumours need to be discussed. - Okay.

It was reported that Captain Zaharie also had a girlfriend.

That I do not know about.

Even if I knew, I say why not?

We are allowed to, as long as you take good care of your wife.

Even if you ask my sister, she would she

doesn't care, you can marry another one.

Why not we can marry four, we are Muslim.

A self-confessed aviation geek, Zaharie

built a flight simulator in his home.

Spending hours practising emergency landings

Inviting friends over, to have a go.

In terms of Captain Zaharie time spent on

the simulator, was it a secret of his?

The flight simulator is definitely not a secret, of his.

He was proud of it, and since he installed it about a year ago,

he has been proudly showing it off in the Facebook.

So there’s nothing sinister about it.

Many pilots have flight simulators at home.

For Zaharie it's become the subject

of intense media speculation.

Claims that he deleted simulator data, before flying MH370.

But Aswad Khan says his sister Fiza, Zaharie's wife

told him that the flight simulator broke in 2013.

That simulator was dismantled already, the things crashed.

It doesn’t work, so he had to reformat the drive.

To be clear,

Captain Zaharie's wife has told you that he was

not on that simulator this year, except to try and re-install.

He did not practise extreme landings and take-offs?

This year?

I don’t think so, because the simulator is not working.

Captain Zaharie was also politically minded,

a strong supporter and distant

relative of opposition Anwar Ibrahim

In what many believe is a politically

motivated trial on Friday 7th March,

Ibrahim was sentenced to 5 years jail for the crime of sodomy.

It was rumoured that Zaharie was in court

in Kuala Lumpur for the verdict, just hours

before he piloted MH 370, leading to claims

he took the plane down in political protest.

A distressed activist, a political fanatic.

But his brother in law Aswad Khan

said Zaharie was not at court.

Was Captain Zaharie at the trial of Anwar Ibrahim?

No, I asked my sister personally, even, even my sister

herself informed him on what happened on that day.

So the idea that Captain Zaharie was

so distressed, by the ruling in this

court case that he took a plane on

a suicide mission? That is ridiculous?

And making that decision within around

4 or 5 hours is absolutely ridiculous.

A prime suspect with no apparent motive.

To date there is no proof Zaharie is responsible.

But we can prove how MH370 was

allowed to disappear that morning.

Starting on the ground, with air traffic control at 1:20 a.m.

One minute, MH370 blips regularly

on civilian radar screens.

The next, transponder disabled, it's gone.

When you can't see the target or

the radar display of the aircraft

and label, disappear

you would start to become quite concerned immediately.

That didn’t happen, at the exact moment

the transponder and the ACARS stopped working,

MH370 is flying through a technically obscure

grey zone, a vulnerable hand over point between

two airspace sectors, Malaysia and Vietnam

If I was going to take

the aircraft over, and wanted to make

the aircraft disappear this is exactly when I would do it.

Did MH370 fly to outsmart air traffic control?

Yes.

As MH370 reaches Vietnam airspace, it's directed

to switch over to air traffic control in

Ho Chi Minh City, standard procedure for any

plane following a commercial flight path.

Any pilot worth his salt, any pilot anywhere in the world,

when your hand it over, you switch

frequency, in the case of

a 777 you probably have that frequency

already on the spare box.

In Vietnam, officers on duty wait for MH370 to check in,

a grace period, of reportedly up to 5 minutes.

I tell you it's all done in one swoop.

Malaysian 370 good night, over to

Ho Chi Minh, click. Ho Chi Minh, Malaysian

370 good morning. That's all it takes.

Exactly that long.

That did not happen.

Ho Chi Minh Air Traffic Control waits,

and waits for MH370 to respond.

How normal is it for the plane simply to not check in?

Unheard of, unless there was a problem on board

the aeroplane with the- eh communications.

If they aircraft, if there was a problem with

them not calling, the aircraft not calling

Vietnam, it should have they should have

gone straight back to Kuala Lumpur.

Instead, almost 20 minutes pass.

At 1:38 a.m.,

Ho Chi Minh finally calls air traffic control in

Kuala Lumpur - they've failed to make contact with MH370.

Twenty minutes?

Yeah well it's, it's way too long.

It's way too long. You would think

that would have happened in

the first three or four minutes, yeah.

The delay is soon compounded by misinformation

coming out of Malaysia Airlines Operations Centre.

At around 2:00 a.m., the airline makes the first

of three stunning communication errors.

According to this timeline of events released by

the Malaysian Government, an airline employee

told the nearby air traffic control centre

that the aircraft was in Cambodian airspace.

And again at 2:15 a.m. - MH370 was flying

in Cambodian airspace.

Twenty minutes later, at 2:35 a.m., a third time.

With Malaysia Airlines Operations

even giving coordinates.

Is it not concerning that at 2 a.m.,

the authorities know that

370 is in an airspace and an area that it shouldn't be?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And it's more surprising

that the control authorities cannot see

the aircraft, but Malaysian Airlines are supposedly

is reporting the position of that aircraft.

What's even more surprising:

Malaysia Airlines not only provided misleading

coordinates, the airline provided

them before even trying to call MH370.

According to information we've obtained, Malaysia Airlines

Operations Centre made its first attempt

to call MH370 at 2:39 a.m. That's four minutes after

providing those misleading coordinates at 2:35 a.m.

Despite the gravity of the situation,

the airline made just one attempt to call

MH370 by satellite phone in those crucial

hours before it was due to land.

Based on the Government's timetable, air traffic

control in both Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh

continued to operate under Malaysia Airlines'

confusing data placing MH370 in Cambodian airspace

until 3.30 a.m., when a correction was made.

Malaysia Airlines Operations Centre informed

Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre that the flight

tracker information was based on flight projection

and not reliable for aircraft positioning.

Unbelievably, another two hours would pass before

Kuala Lumpur activated Air Search and Rescue.

So they wait until 5:30?

That seems very long.

There'd be other people that

should have been informed and those people, I would

have expected, to have started the a search and

rescue co-ordination centre before that time.

With maximum confusion, delay and

inaction on the ground, in

the sky, whoever's in control of MH370

has bought invaluable time.

At around 1:30 a.m., invisible in the air, the plane

dramatically changes course, taking a wide left turn.

Would passengers have felt anything?

Not necessarily. It's night-time,

they're tired, probably falling asleep.

It's not known who's flying the plane.

As it glides across the Malaysian

peninsular, transponder off,

now an unauthorised unidentified object,

MH370 isn't visible on civilian secondary radar, but

it can be seen by the military's primary radar.

And it's spotted, then dismissed,

by military radar officers below.

So if there's not very many things flying around

and they've all got transponder codes on and, all

of a sudden, one guy show up on your screen who

doesn't have a transponder code, that should have

been an indication that something, right off

the bat, was amiss, that something needed to be, ah, you

know, something was worthy of maybe making a phone call,

investigating, seeing what was going on.

But it appears nothing was done.

This is the route MH370 is believed to have taken.

Based on its likely altitude

and speed, it took MH370 around 15

minutes to fly across the peninsular.

During that time, it was well

within at least two of Malaysia's

military radar zones - the last, at Butterworth, Penang.

On that clear night, with very little air traffic

and close to empty skies, MH370 flew almost

directly over the top of Malaysia's military

radar station located on the island of Penang.

Four Corners understands that a team

of up to five officers could or should

have been on duty at the nearby radar

operations centre at Butterworth airbase.

Their job? To man the military radar screens, looking

for unidentified aircraft entering Malaysia's airspace.

What should the military have done that night?

The Air Force will be alerted and will have

to then be flown to that area to either,

you know, normally to guide the plane to

land or to leave the Malaysian airspace.

They're standard operating

procedure and this was never done.

The military completely breached

the standing operating procedures?

The former First Admiral of the Royal Malaysian Navy, now

member of the People's Justice Party,

Imran Abdul Hamid, agrees.

Is it inexcusable for the RMAF Chief to not have

tracked down this plane and chased it in real time?

Definitely, if it is, if they knew

the aircraft is passing through our country,

definitely they must react. They should

be responsible for what they are doing.

MH370 could have been blipping on military radar screens

as an unidentified object for up to 40 minutes.

Until around 2.25 a.m.

Yeah, I mean it's a major scandal here, because this is of

course amounting to a major threat to national security.

But clearly I think on the issue

of the radar, there's no defence.

Both the Minister of Defence and Minister of

transport have just completely ignored this.

Forty one days since MH370 disappeared,

at a Defence Expo in Kuala Lumpur,

we asked the Minister to confirm reports that the Department of

Civil Aviation rang the military,

reporting they'd lost MH370, asking

military officers on duty to look

for the plane early that morning.

Minister Hishammudin, ABC Television,

Australia. Did civil aviation contact

the military as has been reported

in the early hours of the morning?

Sorry?

Did civil aviation contact the military in the early hours

the flight disappeared, as has been reported by Reuters?

When?

Contacted on the morning of the 8th would

have been around 2 a.m. it's reported.

Oh, no, no I am not going back...

Well the record hasn't been

corrected and the question still.

Well it will be corrected.

Well can you correct it today please?

No. Let it be corrected by all those involved.

One week later, at the Ministry of Defence, Minister

Hishammuddin agreed to an interview with Four Corners.

To answer questions about what the military did and didn't do.

For the first time, confirming that civil

aviation did ring the military that morning.

Did DCA contact the military?

Yes they did.

What time?

You have to ask the DCA and it will come out,

the details, I think this, the dates, because I do not want

to be trapped by, from my experience in the last few

weeks, by dates, by numbers, by names, by rank.

Even though civil aviation had rung the military,

possibly as early as 2 a.m.- alerting officers on duty

to look out for a lost, unidentified commercial plane,

the military allowed MH370 to glide out to sea.

Minister Hishammuddin told Four Corners

that MH370 was tracked by the military

in real time, but inexplicably, dismissed

as not hostile by the officer on duty.

The military also decided not to send

up one of its planes to investigate.

But why not send the jets up if you, you have

conceded earlier that you knew very early in

the morning the plane was missing, there was four

and a half hours time in which to respond.

It was not hostile; it was commercial; it was

from our airspace; we're not at war with anybody.

Even if we sent them up, are you going to

say that we're going to shoot it down?

Well you said that, not me.

No, I'm asking you.

I could not possibly answer that.

If you're not going to shoot it down,

what's the point of sending it up?

To see where it's going.

Well to see where it going, you need

a fighter for that? If you're talking

about military procedures, and if

I did shoot it down, you'd be

the first to say, how can you shoot down

a commercial airline with 14

nationals, half of them Chinese, I'd

be in a worse position probably.

Why shoot it down though if it's not hostile?

Well the Americans would.

If the military didn't dismiss the plane as irrelevant,

if the officers on duty took action, the Government

would have avoided another - spending

a week searching the wrong - the South China Sea.

The DCA with all the assisting agencies,

have conducted a thorough rescue

and search operations over a very

wide area in the South China Sea.

It would take a team of determined

satellite engineers across the globe

for the Malaysian Government to realise

it was looking in the wrong place.

The breakthrough came on the other side of the world, here

in London, where a small group of satellite engineers began

to painstakingly analyse the only data available from

MH370 after its communications systems had been disabled.

They didn't have much - a sequence

of 14 numbers, signals sent between

the plane and a satellite hovering around

35,000 kilometres in the sky above.

The data pointed to one crucial thing:

the plane had continued to fly until 8.19 a.m.

It didn't crash into the South China Sea as first thought.

I mean this is basic physics that was used.

Ah, what we did is used the data available

in a different way. We combined the small

bits of information in a different way.

That information came from a ground station used by satellite

technology company Inmarsat on the outskirts of Perth.

The ground station had been logging

data on MH370's movements, a series

of pings after the ACARS communications

system on board stopped working.

And as I matter of procedure they immediately

picked up the logs for that plane.

The logs showed that, although

the ACARS had been disabled, MH370's

satellite communications terminal,

or SATCOM, was still operating.

As it continued to fly, every hour,

the SATCOM was trying to communicate with

Inmarsat's satellite, the F3, hovering

in the sky above the Indian Ocean.

What happens is that our satellite

comm, our SATCOM terminal, will at

regular intervals, we will have

a handshake exchange with the teleport.

You could call it, the technical term is a sort of 'keep alive',

ah just checking that the timing is correct between

the two and that the channels, we have a number of

channels available, they are available for use if needed.

Over 48 hours, Inmarsat's engineering team

crunched the data, seven timing numbers

and seven frequency numbers, in the hope

of narrowing down the right search area.

How are things going?

Ah, I think we are making good progress; you

can see the seven arcs that we have after

the loss of radar contact, and you can see them

extending down into the Southern Indian Ocean.

It was a painstaking period of detailed

analysis and checking and validation.

We had to be sure that we understood the data we had.

Inmarsat's data showed that MH370

made seven handshakes with Satellite 3,

indicating that the plane continued

to fly into the morning.

Longer than first thought and well

away from the South China Sea.

The last, a partial handshake, at 8:19 a.m.

Does that prove that MH370 was flying until 8.19 a.m.?

It proves, just it proves that the SATCOM

terminal was working until 0019 or 8.19

as you put it; it was still moving ah

between 0011 and 0019. You can deduce that.

And there was nothing further? No data further from 8.19?

From that point onwards, no. There was a attempt at

a handshake at 0115, I believe, but that failed.

72 hours after MH370 was

lost on Tuesday the 11th of March,

Inmarsat privately handed the data

over to its distributor, which in turn

gave it to Malaysia - showing that

MH370 had continued to fly either

north or south for several hours after

it lost contact with the ground.

Despite the data, two days later, on Thursday,

Minister Hishammuddin publicly dismissed

the possibility that MH370 continued to fly

after it lost contact with the ground.

Before I take any questions, ladies and

gentleman, I would like to clear up a few

issues. Firstly being on the engine data.

I would like to refer to news reports

suggesting that the aircraft may have continued

flying for some time after last contact.

As Malaysia Airlines will confirm

shortly, those reports are inaccurate.

At best, a communication breakdown. At worst Inmarsat's

data may have been ignored for several days by Malaysia.

Remarkably, another two days would pass before

the Government abandoned its search in the South China Sea.

It took Malaysia several days to take Inmarsat's data on-board

and shift the search area. Was that a reasonable delay?

It's difficult to say, Carol. It's really

difficult to say. We have, throughout

this process, learned that in events of

this magnitude, everybody has an opinion.

The Minister told Four Corners Inmarsat's data had

to be verified before the Government could act.

And only when we had confirmation, corroboration,

verification that the commercial flight that was

detected by the military radar was the MH370, then

we stopped our search in the South China Sea.

That was after searching on all sorts of leads

fireballs in the sky, oil slicks,

life rafts, lifeboats, even a Chinese

satellite images in the South China Sea.

Absolutely, there was a lot to deal with at that stage so

is it, is it a reasonable delay to, to need three days.

Was it three days?

I think, ah, I think that it's, ah, wrong to, ah,

just point out and throw out a period of three days.

Two weeks after MH370 was lost, on the 24th of March,

Malaysia's Prime Minister publicly acknowledged

Inmarsat's additional data showing MH370 is likely

to have ended in the southern Indian ocean.

It is therefore with deep sadness and

regret that I must inform you,

that according to this new data, flight MH370

ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

For the families of those on board,

agony quickly turned to anger.

We want they give us the truth, that's what we want.

Eight weeks on, out in the southern Indian

Ocean, where MH370 is believed to have ended

around 2,000 kilometres off the coast of

Western Australia, no wreckage has been found.

The battery on the black box has run out.

There are no more signals to chase.

Despite the cost, the search goes on - led by Australia.

We haven't found anything. The search continues in the

adjacent areas and hopefully we'll

find something, but, I would

say that, over the next, eight to 12 months we will

find the aircraft. Ah, we'll find its final resting place.