Communications:9M-MRO OOOI Reports

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Communications - Boeing 777 Reports

9M-MRO OOOI Reports

Background

During Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on Saturday, 8 March 2014 the Boeing 777 registered 9M-MRO automatically sent several reports using a messaging system called ACARS.

On this page two reports are explained. Both are OOOI messages.

OOOI Meaning

The acronym OOOI refers to four flight stages which are: Out of the gate, Off the ground, On the ground, and Into the gate.

These events are registered by switches on the aircraft. When these events occur, ACARS sends a message from the aircraft, typically to the airline Operations Centre, but in some instances the messages are relayed to others.

The OOOI event types are described below:-

Out of the gate event: Departure from the gate with all doors closed and parking brake released;
Off the ground event: Take-off with the nose gear squat switch extended;
On the ground event: Touch down with the nose gear squat switch compressed; and
Into the gate event: Parked at the gate with the parking brake set and the door open.

Only two of these four types of OOOI messages were transmitted during flight MH370. These are:-

An Out of the gate message at 16:27:57 UTC (00:27:57 MYT Saturday, 8 March 2014)
An Off the ground message at 16:41:43 UTC (00:41:43 MYT Saturday, 8 March 2014)

Message details from the ACARS Traffic Log are shown below. Some message content can be interpreted by using the Tooltips.

Source: Safety Investigation Report MH370/01/2018 1.9.4 Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System

1. OOOI B777 OUT Report

Time 16:27:57	Trans 46818462	Direction Incoming Downlink	AN 9M-MRO	FI MH0370	Medium IOR2	Machine MHKULKJACM001	Raw DTG 071628	SMI M11	Application RELAY
Status Normal		Message Type OOOI B777 OUT Report			Source/Destination QXSXMXS

QU DPCCAMH
.QXSXMXS 071628
M11
FI MH0370/AN 9M-MRO
DT QXT IOR2 071628 M01A
- OUT01MAS370 /--071627WMKKZBAA
1627 496-----

Source: Safety Investigation Report MH370/01/2018 Appendix 1.9A

Note: Additional ACARS messages related to this transmission are included in the ACARS Traffic Log for MH370 (9M-MRO)/0027:57 MYT.

2. OOOI B777 OFF Report

Time 16:41:43	Trans 46818633	Direction Incoming Downlink	AN 9M-MRO	FI MH0370	Medium IOR2	Machine MHKULKJACM001	Raw DTG 071641	SMI M12	Application RELAY
Status Normal		Message Type OOOI B777 OFF Report			Source/Destination QXSXMXS

QU DPCCAMH
.QXSXMXS 071641
M12
FI MH0370/AN 9M-MRO
DT QXT IOR2 071641 M02A
- OFF01MAS370 /--071641WMKKZBAA
1641 492

Source: Safety Investigation Report MH370/01/2018 Appendix 1.9A

Note: Additional ACARS messages related to this transmission are included in the ACARS Traffic Log for MH370 (9M-MRO)/0041:43 MYT.

Note: Although the Off the ground message was sent at 16:41:43 UTC, the official departure time for Flight MH370 is 16:42 UTC Friday, 7 March 2014 or 00:42 MYT Saturday, 8 March 2014 based on the Departure Message.