2014 bound for beijing. if it turns out this is wreckage from that flight it would be a major discovery in a search that has gone on for nearly 17 months. march 8, 2014. malaysia airlines flight 370 takes off bound for beijing. 239 people on board. 40 minutes into the flight the airplane's transponder suddenly goes dark. >> the transponder is effectively the incident that sends out a signal to air traffic control that tells you what height it's at and what