Chronology of developments on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

Following is the chronology of events following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew members aboard while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.

It was announced today that the search operation has been suspended after a 34-month search, first in the South China Sea, later in the Strait of Melaka and the Indian Ocean.

The operation may resume if new leads emerge.

* March 8 - Search and rescue (SAR) operation for the missing aircraft launched in the South China Sea.

* March 9 - The search area was extended to Melaka Strait after it was confirmed the aircraft had made an air turn-back.

- Several countries including Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and the United States deployed personnel and assets to aid the search.

* March 15 - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the plane's last satellite communication was detected in one of two possible corridors; a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern corridor approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

- 26 countries were involved in this phase covering 2.24 million square nautical miles.

* March 24 - Najib announced that data released by Britain's Inmarsat satellite concluded that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean, and Australia would lead the search operation there.

* April 1 - The Australian government launched the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) to co-ordinate the search for MH370.

* April 4 - JACC said search for MH370 had entered new phase with underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean to scour treacherous waters to track down the black box 'pinger'.

* July 31 - JACC said the bathymetric survey by vessels Zhu Kezhen and Fugro Equator along the seventh arch at southern Indian Ocean was progressing.

* Oct 21 - Malaysian-contracted vessel, GO Phoenix, joined search operations of Malaysia-Australia contracted ships, Fugro Discovery and Fugro Equator.

- Later, another ship, Fugro Supporter, was added to assist the search.

2015

* Jan 29 - Malaysian DCA director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman officially declared MH370 an accident, in accordance with the Standards of Annexes 12 and 13 of the Chicago Convention and that all 239 of the passengers and crew on board MH370 were presumed to have lost their lives.

* June 18 - Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said Malaysia would continue the second phase of the search for MH370 with only two ships scouring a remote area of the Indian Ocean. The first phase covering more than 52,000 square kilometres had been completed in the same month.

* July 29 - A beach cleaner in Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean found a 2.7 metre-long wing flap called flaperon which experts believed came from a Boeing 777. The only Boeing reported lost in the Indian Ocean is MH370.

* August 6 - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak confirmed that the flaperon found in Reunion Island was from the missing MH370.

2016

* March 7 - A second possible piece from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was found on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, reported a news agency.

* April 20 - Two pieces of debris found on beaches in Mozambique almost certainly originated from MH370, according to the Technical Examination Report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

* May 14 - DCA was more than 90 per cent certain the two pieces of debris found in South Africa and Mauritius, respectively, were from the vanished Malaysia Airlines MH370.

* July 22 - Malaysia, China and Australia said search for MH370 would be suspended but not terminated upon completion of the priority 120,000 square kilometre search area.

* Sept 16 - Twenty-two pieces of debris have been found so far along South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius and Tanzania where two have been confirmed while another four are almost certain to be of the missing MH370.

* Oct 7 - Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) experts concluded that the debris found on Mauritius island was from the vanished Flight MH370.

* Dec 20 - ATSB said the previously identified underwater area scoured in the southern Indian Ocean did not contain the missing aircraft.

2017

* Jan 17 - Underwater search for MH370 suspended, according to a tripartite communique from Malaysia, Australia and China.

-- BERNAMA