Timeline: The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

It is more than a year since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 vanished without a trace carrying 239 people on board.

As the search for the Boeing 777 continues ITV News takes a look back at the timeline of events surrounding MH370's 'disappearance'.

  • 8 March 2014 at 12.41am - Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur travelling to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.

  • 8 March 2014 at 2.14am - The plane is last seen on military radar. Half an hour later the public are told contact has been lost.

  • 10 March 2014 - A plane door is reportedly spotted in Vietnamese waters but aircraft searches find nothing.

  • 11 March 2014 - The search for the missing plane is widened to cover a 115-nautical mile radius but several sightings of debris turn up nothing.

  • 15 March 2014 - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says the missing airliner was deliberately diverted and continued flying for more than six hours after losing contact with the ground.

  • 24 March 2015 - Families of those on board are told the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean.

A relative of one of those on board reacts as she is told no one is believed to have survived. Credit: Reuters
  • 7 April 2014 - Two signals are detected suggesting the presence of a flight data recorder in the "most promising lead so far".

  • 24 April 2014 - 'Search and rescue' efforts officially become a 'search and recovery' mission ahead of a huge underwater search.

  • June 2014 - A preliminary report issued by Australian authorities suggests MH370's crew became incapacitated, possibly due to oxygen starvation, and the plane continued on autopilot.

  • January 2015 - Malaysia officially declares the disappearance of flight MH370 an "accident with no survivors".

  • 8 March 2015 - An interim report released on the first anniversary of MH370's disappearance suggests a battery in the underwater locator beacon on the plane had expired in December 2013.

  • 13 May 2015 - Search teams find a cluster of objects but it turns out to be a shipwreck.

  • 29 July 2015 - Plane debris washes up on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. It's connection to Flight 370 is being investigated but it is believed to be from a Boeing 777 - the same type of plane as MH370.

  • 3 September 2015 - Tests carried out on the Reunion Island debris prove it is from the missing jet.

A serial number on the debris could be the clue needed to find MH370. Credit: Reuters
  • 24 January 2016 - A piece of plane wreckage washes up in southern Thailand.

  • 26 January 2016 - After being sent off for testing, the metal panel is not a match to the missing Boeing 777, which disappeared in 2014.

  • 3 March 2016 - A South African family find a piece of suspected plane wreckage off the coast of Mozambique, which is from the same type plane as MH370 - the only missing 777. It has been sent off for testing.

  • 6 March 2016 - A piece of debris washes up on Reunion Island - and is found in the same spot by Johnny Begue, the man who found the only confirmed piece of MH370 in September 2015.

  • 16 March 2016 - Australian officials say it is "unlikely" to be from the missing plane.

The plane part found in Mozambique which is from the same type of plane as the only missing Boeing 777. Credit: Reuters