MH370 Flight Plan

Summary for Flight MH370 on 8th March 2014 (Source: FlightAware )

Departure: Kuala Lumpur International Airport (Sepang, Selangor Malaysia)	Destination: Beijing Capital International Airport (Beijing China)
Scheduled departure time: 00:35 MYT	Scheduled arrival time: 05:51 CST
Actual departure time: 00:49 MYT	Estimated arrival time would have been: 06:19 CST
Expected flight duration: 5 hours 29 minutes	Distance: 4,418 km direct or 4,504 km via planned flight path

Planned Route

DCT PIBOS R208 IKUKO M076F290 R208 IGARI M765 BITOD N0480F330 L637 TSN N0490F350 W1 BMT W12 PCA G221 BUNTA N0480F350 A1 IKELA N0480F350 P901 IDOSI N0480F390 DCT CH DCT BEKOL K0890S1160 A461 YIN K0890S1190 A461

What do all the abbreviations in the flight plan mean?

Aviation uses a lot of abbreviations, acronyms and terminology but we can easily make sense of it.

Step 1 - Waypoints and Navaid locations are identified in bold type

DCT PIBOS R208 IKUKO M076F290 R208 IGARI M765 BITOD N0480F330 L637 TSN N0490F350 W1 BMT W12 PCA G221 BUNTA N0480F350 A1 IKELA N0480F350 P901 IDOSI N0480F390 DCT CH DCT BEKOL K0890S1160 A461 YIN K0890S1190 A461

Step 2 - Route numbers are identified in bold type

DCT PIBOS R208 IKUKO M076 F290 R208 IGARI M765 BITOD N0480F330 L637 TSN N0490F350 W1 BMT W12 PCA G221 BUNTA N0480F350 A1 IKELA N0480F350 P901 IDOSI N0480F390 DCT CH DCT BEKOL K0890S1160 A461 YIN K0890S1190 A461

Step 3 - Flight Levels are identified in bold type

DCT PIBOS R208 IKUKO M076 F290 R208 IGARI M765 BITOD N0480 F330 L637 TSN N0490 F350 W1 BMT W12 PCA G221 BUNTA N0480 F350 A1 IKELA N0480 F350 P901 IDOSI N0480 F390 DCT CH DCT BEKOL K0890S1160 A461 YIN K0890S1190 A461

Step 4 - Segment the route into FIRs

• Malaysia: DCT PIBOS R208 IKUKO M076F290 R208 IGARI M765
• Vietnam: BITOD N0480F330 L637 TSN N0490F350 W1 BMT W12 PCA G221 BUNTA N0480 F350 A1
• China: IKELA N0480F350 P901 IDOSI N0480F390 DCT CH DCT BEKOL K0890S1160 A461 YIN K0890S1190 A461

Now try reading the flight plan using the tooltips - each underlined word has an explanation which appears when you place a mouse or pointer over it. Spaces have been added which were not in the original text on FlightAware.

• Malaysia: DCT PIBOS R208 IKUKO M076 F290 R208 IGARI M765
• Vietnam: BITOD N0480 F330 L637 TSN N0490 F350 W1 BMT W12 PCA G221 BUNTA N0480 F350 A1
• China: IKELA N0480 F350 P901 IDOSI N0480 F390 DCT CH DCT BEKOL K0890S1160 A461 YIN K0890S1190 A461

Thanks to The aiR BLOG for providing a link to the MH370 Flight Plan and explaining how to read it. A map is included on that site.

Where did MH370 deviate from the scheduled fight path?

At 01:19:24 MYT Air Traffic Controllers in Malaysia at KLATCC instructed MH370 to contact HCMATCC. This instruction was acknowledged.

At 01:21:04 MYT KLATCC observed MH370 on their radar as it passed over the waypoint IGARI.

At 01:38:00 MYT HCMATCC made a query to KLATCC on the whereabouts of MH 370

Officially, MH 370 was reported missing at 01:38 after passing waypoint IGARI while en-route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China.

However, the transcript of conversations between KLATCC and HCMATCC show that at 01:46:46 HCM queried about MH370 again, stating that radar contact was established over IGARI but there was no verbal contact.

Ho Chi Minh advised that the observed radar blip disappeared at waypoint BITOD.

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References

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Version History

Date and Change (not including formatting)

14 November 2014 - Page completed to Version 1

13 November 2014 - page created with basic content

Malaysian Time (MYT) is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) + 8 hours

China Standard Time is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) + 8 hours

the flight will proceed direct to

Waypoint Country MY Location Karak Latitude 3° 21' 6.49" N Longitude 102° 3' 16.43" E

Flight Route R208

Waypoint Country SG Latitude 5° 45' 12.00" N Longitude 103° 13' 24.00" E

Waypoint Country SG Latitude 6° 56' 10.00" N Longitude 103° 35' 6.00" E

Flight Route M765

Waypoint Country VN Latitude N07152400 Longitude E104070600

airspeed 480 knots at flight level 330 (33000 feet)

Flight Route L637

Navaid Name TAN SON NHAT. Country VN Location Ho Chi Minh City Type VOR Latitude 10° 48' 59.00" N Longitude 106° 38' 44.00" E

Flight Route W1

Navaid Name BUON MA THUOT. Country VN Location Ðat Lý Type DVOR Latitude 12° 39' 59.00" N Longitude 108° 7' 23.00" E

Flight Route W12

Navaid Name PHU CAT Country VN Location Hòa Dõng Type VOR Latitude 13° 57' 26.00" N Longitude 109° 2' 34.00" E

Flight Route G221

Waypoint Country VN Latitude N16500000 Longitude E109234200

airspeed 480 knots at flight level 350 (35000 feet)

Flight Route A1

Waypoint Country CN Latitude 18° 39' 42.00" N Longitude 112° 14' 42.00" E

Flight Route P901

Waypoint Country HK Latitude 190000N Longitude 1123000E

airspeed 470 knots at flight level 290 (29000 feet)

Cheung Chau

Waypoint Country CN Location Shenzhen Latitude 22° 32' 36.00" N Longitude 114° 7' 60.00" E

Flight Route A461

Navaid Name YINGDE Country CN Location Yingde Type VOR Latitude 24° 12' 24.00" N Longitude 113° 24' 36.00" E

Flight Route M076

Flight Level at 29000 feet.

Flight Level at 33000 feet.

Flight Level at 35000 feet.

Flight Level at 39000 feet.

Flight Information Region

Additional information which appears on the screen when the cursor or mouse pointer is placed over some text which is faintly underlined.

Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre

Ho Chi Minh Air Traffic Control Centre

A predetermined geographical position that is defined in terms of latitude and longitude coordinates, used for navigation. More Info

a spot of light on a radar screen indicating the position of a detected aircraft (Source: Safety Investigation Report)