MH370, a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from air traffic control radar shortly after the waypoint IGARI handover to Vietnamese airspace. Military radar indicated the aircraft turned back across the Malay Peninsula and then flew south over the Indian Ocean. Satellite handshakes provided the only clues to its final trajectory. Despite the largest search effort in aviation history, the main wreckage and flight recorders have never been found. The 239 passengers and crew remain missing. The Malaysian investigation highlighted failures in air traffic coordination, delayed search-and-rescue activation, and the absence of any requirement for real-time tracking over remote oceanic areas. The disaster triggered ICAO's Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) mandate, requiring aircraft to report position every 15 minutes over oceanic areas and autonomously transmit distress signals if an aircraft deviates from its flight plan unexpectedly.

Study Hook: MH370's Inmarsat satellite handshakes provided the only evidence of its southern trajectory into the Indian Ocean. How did the analysis of doppler shift in these automated pings narrow the search area to a vast arc—and why was the aircraft never equipped with real-time tracking that would have made the search unnecessary?

Visual Prompt: A vast expanse of the southern Indian Ocean at twilight, with a search vessel's searchlight sweeping the dark water, a single aircraft wing fragment floating in the foreground, and the moonlit horizon stretching endlessly in every direction.

Tags: [MH370, Malaysia Airlines, disappearance, Indian Ocean, GADSS, satellite tracking, ICAO, oceanic search, 2014]