General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared is a three-part Netflix documentary series, directed by Louise Malkinson, that examines the competing theories surrounding the 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. It was released on 8 March 2023, the ninth anniversary of the disappearance, and devotes each episode to a different explanation: pilot action, hijacking, and a French journalist's interception theory.¹ The series follows family members, scientists, investigators, and journalists still searching for answers nine years after the flight vanished with all 239 people aboard.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Three-part Netflix documentary (limited series), directed by Louise Malkinson¹
Release	8 March 2023, the ninth anniversary of the disappearance¹
Episodes	"The Pilot," "The Hijack," and "The Intercept," all released 8 March 2023²
Critical scores	80% Tomatometer from 10 reviews; 29% Popcornmeter from 100+ audience ratings²; Metascore 71 (Generally Favorable)³
Central theories	Pilot murder-suicide; hijacking by Russian operatives; cargo/interception theory advanced by a French journalist⁴
Main criticism	Giving equal weight to fringe theories, according to some researchers and reviewers¹
Rating	TV-MA on Rotten Tomatoes; Netflix lists the series as TV-14²^•⁵

Spoilers

The case behind the series

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014 carrying 239 people, most of them Chinese nationals.⁶ The pilot's last radio call to Kuala Lumpur was "Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero"; the plane never checked in with Vietnamese controllers, and its transponder shut down minutes later. Military radar tracked it turning back over the Andaman Sea, and satellite data showed it flew on for hours, possibly until its fuel ran out, in the direction of the remote southern Indian Ocean.⁶

The underwater search, coordinated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, ended in January 2017 without finding the plane. A 2018 private search by the marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, under a "no find, no fee" contract, also failed. The first hard evidence that the flight ended in the Indian Ocean came in July 2015, when a flaperon (wing control surface combining flap and aileron) from the aircraft washed ashore on Réunion Island; further pieces later washed up on the east coast of Africa.⁶ Malaysia's 2018 safety investigation report concluded that the aircraft's departure from its planned route "likely resulted from manual inputs," while stating it was unable to determine the real cause of the disappearance.⁷

Episodes and theories

Episode 1, "The Pilot." The opening episode outlines the narrative most supported by the Independent Group, a collection of aviation experts and scientists, and by Australian investigators: a mass murder-suicide plot by the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, whose home flight simulator was found to have mapped a path similar to the one indicated by radar and satellite data.⁴ The episode covers the flight's vanishing from radar shortly after takeoff and the early suspicion that fell on the pilot.²

Episode 2, "The Hijack." The second episode presents the theory of Jeff Wise, an American aviation journalist and longtime MH370 commentator, that Russian operatives seized the aircraft through the plane's electronic bay, accessible by a hatch in the first-class cabin, to distract from the Crimean war.⁴ Per the episode summary, a second crash involving a Malaysia Airlines plane changed Wise's thinking and led to this controversial theory.²

Episode 3, "The Intercept." The finale follows the discovery of possible MH370 debris, which raised more questions, and a further theory involving suspicious cargo, advanced by a French journalist.²^•¹

Reception

Professional critics were broadly favorable. The series holds an 80% Tomatometer from 10 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, though its audience Popcornmeter score is 29% from more than 100 ratings.² On Metacritic it scored 71, "Generally Favorable," from four critic reviews: three positive and one mixed.³

Reviewers singled out the series' structure of advancing and then dismantling successive hypotheses. John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal wrote that after each "thoroughly convincing argument comes an equally cogent demolishing of it," and described an "element of horror in a case in which nothing is settled."³ Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the series for "laying out the case for three key theories and leaving it to the viewer to determine which is the most plausible."³ Nick Schager of The Daily Beast judged it strongest in its early episodes, focused on the initial reaction to the vanishing, and observed that the unresolved case continues to fuel "fictional fantasies that keep false hope alive."³ Joel Keller of Decider was mixed, writing that viewers interested in the conspiracy theories would enjoy it while anyone seeking concrete answers would find it frustrating.³

Criticism of the approach

The series drew criticism from researchers and parts of the audience for its handling of evidence. The FindMH370 media catalog notes that it was "widely watched but criticised by some researchers for giving equal weight to fringe theories."¹ A Den of Geek analysis argued that the docuseries "gives conspiracy and theory equal weight" and allows its subjects to omit and misrepresent parts of the story, while also noting that several interviewees state it is not fair to blame Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah since the full circumstances will likely never be known.⁸ Audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes repeatedly faulted the series for privileging speculation over the satellite-data analysis performed by independent researchers.²

Director Louise Malkinson, asked about the decision to move between competing explanations, pointed to the experience of obsession, both for those who lost someone aboard MH370 and for those determined to find answers.⁴

Aftermath

The mystery the series documents remains open. Malaysia's government has since committed to resuming the search: in 2025 it approved a renewed "no find, no fee" agreement with Ocean Infinity covering a 15,000-square-kilometer site in the southern Indian Ocean, with payment of $70 million only if wreckage is discovered, and in June 2026 it extended the contract for another year to complete the remaining 7,428.54 square kilometers of search area.⁹ The National Transportation Safety Board and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have each appointed accredited representatives to provide technical assistance to the renewed Malaysian-led effort.¹⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026