2014

March 8: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 goes missing, sparking a frantic search. April 28: The surface search ends after a 4.5 million sq km area is scoured. Oct 6: The underwater search begins in a 60,000 sq km area.

2015

April 16: Over 60 per cent of the 60,000 sq km has been covered. Malaysian, Australian and Chinese officials agree that if the aircraft is not found, the search will be extended over another 60,000 sq km. July 29: A piece of plane debris is found on Reunion island, which is later determined to have come from MH370. More debris is found later in South Africa, Tanzania and Mozambique.

2016

July 22: A meeting of Australian, Chinese and Malaysian officials agrees that if no new evidence pointing to the location of the plane is found, the search will be called off when the remaining 10,000 sq km of the search area is covered. Dec 20: The ATSB says new evidence indicates the plane went down in a 25,000 sq km area north of the existing search zone.