(Bloomberg) — The disappearance of Malaysian Airline SystemBhd.'s Flight 370 has galvanized a multinational search, spawnedtheories ranging from an accident to air piracy and repeatedlydashed hopes that a resolution was at hand.

Below is a timeline of the events that began with the jet'sdeparture from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing:

March 8:

12:41 a.m.: Flight 370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijingwith 239 passengers and crew members on board.

1:07 a.m.: Last transmission from the Boeing Co. 777-200ER viaan onboard text-and-data messaging system known by the acronymAcars.

1:19 a.m.: Last communication from the cockpit. Initially,officials said investigations showed the copilot said, “alright,good night” as the last words. They released a transcript on April1 saying the last words were “Good Night Malaysian Three SevenZero.” Plane leaves Malaysian airspace, heading across the Gulf ofThailand toward Vietnam.

1:21 a.m.: Radar transponder is switched off.

1:37 a.m.: Next Acars transmission is due, and never comes.

2:15 a.m.: Malaysian military radar spots an aircraft on thewest side of Peninsular Malaysia that isn't using its transponder.This development won't be publicly known until about a week later.The radar target is Flight 370, heading away from its plannedroute.

6:30 a.m.: Flight 370 is scheduled to arrive in Beijing.

7:39 a.m.: China's Xinhua news agency sends a flash bulletinsaying contact had been lost with Flight 370. Chinese passengersmake up about two-thirds of the people on board the plane.

8:11 a.m.: Last satellite signal sent from the plane, known as a“handshake,” is detected. This development won't be known for abouta week.

8:19 a.m.: Evidence of a “partial handshake” between theaircraft and the ground station eight minutes after the lastcomplete communication. This information was released March 25.

9:15 a.m.: No response from the aircraft when the ground stationsent the next message, indicating the plane was no longer logged onto the network.

Initial search efforts focus on the Gulf of Thailand, where twinoil slicks stir concern that they signal a crash on the plane'sknown route. The discovery that two passengers were traveling onstolen passports triggers speculation that terrorism may have beeninvolved.

March 9: Vietnamese searchers find objects inthe Gulf of Thailand only to conclude later that they're unrelatedto Flight 370. Representatives for the U.S. National TransportationSafety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing travel toMalaysia to assist with the investigation. Speculation arises thatthe plane deviated from its route.

March 10: Malaysia expands the search areafarther into the South China Sea after a plane alerted Hong Kongair traffic controllers about possible debris. Vietnam searcherslook for a suspected window piece that was spotted from the air.The leads prove fruitless. Searchers are unable to locate a yellowinflatable object that a Vietnamese helicopter spotted earlier.

March 11: The search expands east again assuspected debris is found off the coast of Vietnam. One theoryevaporates as authorities in Malaysia and Interpol say thepassengers with stolen passports probably aren't associated withterrorism.

March 12: Malaysia says a criminal probe islooking into hijacking and sabotage among other theories. Vietnamsays Malaysia hasn't been cooperative in search and that the flightmay have turned west after last signal. News reports surface thatthe co-pilot had guests in the cockpit in a previous flight.

March 13: Speculation of the crash's locationmoves toward the Indian Ocean as evidence mounts that the flightcontinued away from its route after controllers lost radar contact.The shift in focus follows a brief flurry of optimism for abreakthrough. Chinese satellite images show floating objectsbetween the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, and theMalaysian government says later that they are unrelated to Flight370.

March 14: The Andaman Sea becomes the latestempty lead in the search. Malaysia looks at the possibility ofpilot and crew involvement, while Prime Minister Najib Razakpostpones a trip to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to overseethe hunt.

March 15: Satellite transmissions trace themissing airliner to the Indian Ocean off of Australia. The pilots'homes are searched, and Najib says new information shows the flightwas intentionally diverted.

March 16: Searchers shift their sights to theIndian Ocean on the basis of the satellite-signals evidence, whichshows that the plane operated for about seven hours after its lastcontact with air traffic control.

March 17: Australia leads the search in theIndian Ocean while the law enforcement probe spreads acrossmultiple fronts. Authorities discuss pilot suicide as onepossibility, police investigate a flight engineer who was apassenger.

March 18: The disappearance becomes the longestin modern aviation history. The U.S. joins Australia in the IndianOcean search, scanning the waters across an area 1 1/2 times as bigas California.

March 19: The U.S. Federal Bureau ofInvestigation joins Malaysia's inquiry, which now includes a probeof data removed from the pilot's home flight simulator on Feb. 3.An analysis of the 777's probable fuel reserves helps narrow theIndian Ocean search area to a patrol zone about the size of Italy,half as big as a day earlier.

March 20: Satellite images of objects offAustralia's west coast spur an air-and-sea search across a remotestretch of the Indian Ocean. The photos were taken on March 16, andpatrol craft aren't able to locate any wreckage.

March 21: A second day of air searches turns upnothing. An analysis of so-called pings from the aircraft bysatellite provider Inmarsat Plc concludes that the plane maintaineda steady course and speed after radar contact was lost. Theassessment is consistent with details suggesting that the plane wascommanded, at least initially, from the cockpit and not disabled byan accident.

March 22: As the mystery reaches the two-weekmark and a day of air and sea patrols produces nothing morepromising than a sighting of a wooden pallet, China announces thatscrutiny of satellite scans has revealed a new image of a largestructure in the search zone. The photo, captured on March 18,appears to show an object measuring 22 meters by 13 meters floating120 kilometers to the southwest of those in the March 16images.

March 23: Malaysian authorities disclose that aFrench satellite has found radar traces of possible debris, withoutsaying when and where the images were captured. Search efforts offAustralia fail to produce a breakthrough as more aircraft join thehunt and ships with specialist equipment begin to arrive.

March 24: Najib, the prime minister, saysMalaysia has concluded the flight ended in the Indian Ocean “farfrom any possible landing sites,” ruling out theories of a detourover Asia or an island landing.

March 25: Families and friends of Chinesepassengers protested in front of the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.Malaysian Air and Boeing's records of MH370's maintenance and creware sought by a law firm representing the uncle of one of thepassengers as Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered petitioned forinformation in Illinois state court.

March 26: Satellite images from Airbus Group NVtaken on March 23 showed 122 potential objects in the southernIndian Ocean in a 400-square kilometer area, about 2,557 kilometersfrom Perth. Some were a meter in length, and others were as long as23 meters, and some appeared to be bright.

March 27: Aircraft searching for the missingMalaysian jet suspended their operations because of bad weather.Thai satellite images taken on March 24 showed more than 300objects in the southern Indian Ocean, while a Japanese satellitedetected about a dozen pieces of possible debris in a March 26image.

March 28: The three-week hunt for Flight 370focused on a new area in the Indian Ocean after radar dataindicated the plane probably flew a shorter distance than earlierestimated. The new zone is about 1,100 kilometers to the northeastof the previous search location. Ribbeck Law filed a secondpetition for data and documents from Boeing and Malaysian Air,while its first was thrown out by a judge.

March 29: Australian and Chinese shipsrecovered unidentified objects from the Indian Ocean, the firsttime in the search that material had been picked up. Malaysia andU.S. officials said nothing unusual has been discovered on thepilot's flight simulator so far, though the FBI's work won't becomplete for another few days or a week.

March 30: The objects retrieved on March 29were identified as “fishing equipment and flotsam.” Malaysian Airsaid it will fly family members to Perth only once it has beenconfirmed that any wreckage found belongs to Flight 370.

March 31: Australian ship Ocean Shield departedfor the search area after being fitted with equipment to detectblack-box recorders with the hunt for the jetliner in its fourthweek. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there was no timelimit on the search. Ribbeck Law's second bid for Boeing andMalaysian Air to turn over data and documents were also thrown outby the same judge.

April 1: Malaysia released the full transcriptof communications between Flight 370 and Kuala Lumpur's air trafficcontrol, which the government said revealed nothing abnormal. AnAustralian official overseeing search operations said crews face anextended mission because of difficult conditions and a lack ofinformation.

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