Search for MH370 flight to restart — A brief timeline of one of the greatest mysteries of aviation industry

Two men from Austria and Italy, listed among the passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight, are not in fact on board. They say their passports were stolen.

March 10, 2014: As dozens of ships and aircraft from seven countries scour the seas around Malaysia and south of Vietnam, questions mounts over whether a bomb or hijacking could have brought down the Boeing airliner.

March 11, 2014: Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble names the two men who boarded the jet with stolen passports as Iranians, aged 18 and 29, who had entered Malaysia using their real passports. "The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident," Noble said.

Malaysian police chief said the younger man appears to be an illegal immigrant. His mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and has been in contact with authorities, he said.

Source: Andrew Haneen/Wikimedia Commons

March 24, 2014: Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak announces that Flight 370 is presumed to have gone down in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors. The announcement is followed by a rare protest in China next day in front of the Malaysian embassy.

March 31, 2014: Following an extensive sea and air search, the Malaysian government accepts the Australian government’s offer to take the lead in the search and recovery operation in the southern Indian Ocean in support of the Malaysian accident investigation.

Earlier China had criticised the handling of search operations by the Malaysian government.

Source: Andrew Haneen/Wikimedia Commons

October 6, 2014: Underwater search for the debris of the plane commences. A bathymetric survey is conducted which provides critical information on the topography of the seafloor.

January 2015: The ongoing search by vessels Go Phoenix, FugroDiscovery, Fugro Equator and Fugro Supporter covers 18,600 square kilometre sea area. Malaysia declares flight MH370 an accident in accordance with the Chicago Convention.

July 2015: Debris of the plane found on Reunion Islands. The object is confirmed to be a flaperon from a Boeing 777.

December 2015-February 2016: Two pieces of debris recovered from beaches in Mozambique -- one found in December and the other in February -- almost certainly came from missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

March 2016: Second possible MH370 plane part found in Reunion. The find came three days after the debris in Mozambique, some 2,100 kilometres west of Reunion, were found.

Source: Andrew Haneen/Wikimedia Commons

March 2016-December 2016: Multiple debris were reportedly found in Pemba Island and Rodrigues—an autonomous island in Mauritius. They were later confirmed by Malaysia to be “almost certainly” of MH370.

January 2017: After a meeting, the governments of Australia, Malaysia and China suspended the search of the plane.