Malaysia Airlines

## What is Malaysia Airlines

**Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB)** (Malay: *Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad*), formerly known as **Malaysian Airline System (MAS)** (Malay: *Sistem Penerbangan Malaysia*), branded as**Malaysia Airlines**, is an airline operating flights from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and from secondary hubs in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching to destinations throughout Asia, Oceania and Europe. Malaysia Airlines is the flag carrier of Malaysia and a member of the oneworld airline alliance. The company headquarters are located at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. In August 2014, the Malaysian government's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional—which then owned 69.37% of the airline—announced its intention to purchase remaining ownership from minority shareholders and de-list the airline from Malaysia's stock exchange, thereby renationalising the airline.

## Early days

There were operating services between Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Wearne's Air Service was started by two Australian brothers, Theodore and Charles Wearne.The service commenced as a thrice weekly flight between Singapore and Penang. The first flight, using an 8-seater de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapide took place on 28 June 1937 This inaugural flight departed Singapore from the then brand-new Kallang Airport, which had just opened earlier in the same month on 12 June. Later, a second DH.89A enabled the expansion to daily services as well as the addition of Ipoh as a destination. During World War II, WAS services ceased after the Japanese occupation of Malaya and Singapore in 1941.

## Malaysia Airlines flight 370

The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER registered 9M-MRO operated by Malaysia Airlines, last made voice contact with air traffic control at 01:19 MYT, 8 March (17:19 UTC, 7 March) when it was over the South China Sea, less than an hour after takeoff. It disappeared from air traffic controllers' radar screens at 01:22 MYT, but was still tracked on military radar as it deviated westwards from its planned flight path and crossed the Malay Peninsula, until it left the range of the military radar at 02:22 while over the Andaman Sea, 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of the island of Penang in northwestern Malaysia.

**UNCONFIRMED SIGHTINGS**

A fishermen, an oil rig worker and people on the Kuda Huvadhoo atoll in the Maldives saw the missing airliner, claimed to have seen an unusually low-flying aircraft off the coast of Kota Bharu; while an oil-rig worker 186 miles (299 km) southeast of Vung Tau claimed he saw a "burning object" in the sky that morning, a claim credible enough for the Vietnamese authorities to send a search-and-rescue mission; and Indonesian fishermen reported witnessing an aircraft crash near the Malacca Straits.

Two days later, the London-based *Daily Mail* reported that "a Malaysian woman on a flight across the Indian Ocean claimed to have seen an aircraft in the water near the Andaman Islands on the day the jet disappeared". Three months later, *The Daily Telegraph* reported that a British woman sailing in the Indian Ocean claimed to have seen an aircraft afire

It was reportedly mentioned that the pilot on 370 claimed to have seen a UFO near the aircraft