It sounds like standard radio chatter between an airplane and ground control , mostly repeating the identifying number of the flight . But the recording that Malaysian officials played for the first time in public in a Beijing conference room on Tuesday is purportedly the last known words of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 before it disappeared on March 8 . `` Malaysia three-seven-zero contact Ho Chi Minh 120.9 , good night , '' says a voice identified by Malaysian officials as that of a radar controller in Kuala Lumpur , the Malaysian capital . `` Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero , '' answers a male voice believed to be a crew member on the plane . Malaysian officials released the audio recording more than 50 days after the plane disappeared , in a long-awaited briefing before scores of relatives of the flight 's Chinese passengers . The session on Tuesday also included the release of a chronology of the aircraft 's last known contacts with radar stations as well as a satellite orbiting over the Indian Ocean . At 2:03 a.m. local time on March 8 , the operational dispatch center of Malaysia Airlines sent a message to the cockpit instructing the pilot to contact ground control in Vietnam , said Sayid Ruzaimi Syed Aris , an official with Malaysia 's aviation authority . Sayid said flight MH370 did not respond to the message . Fuel calculations . Nearly 20 minutes later , at 2:22 , the Royal Malaysian Air Force picked up the flight for the last time on its radar system , Sayid said . By that point , Sayid said , the plane was believed to have swerved far off course over the Malaysian coastal area of Penang , in the direction of the Malacca Strait . According to Malaysian officials in Beijing on Tuesday , there was no direct communication between Malaysia Airlines and MH370 for a five-hour period , until the airline tried unsuccessfully to call the cockpit . `` At 7:13 , '' Sayid said , Malaysia Airlines tried to `` make a voice call to the aircraft , but no pickup . '' If all had gone according to plan , MH370 would have landed at the international airport in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. on March 8 . Malaysian officials told Chinese families on Tuesday that , by their calculations , the aircraft would have run out of fuel seven hours and 31 minutes into the flight . `` Based on the fuel calculation ... the aircraft fuel starvation will occur at time 08:12 , '' said Subas Chandran , a Malaysia Airlines representative . The Malaysian delegation also published slides showing the last known `` handshakes '' between the aircraft and an Inmarsat satellite over the Indian Ocean . The sixth and final handshake took place at 8:11 a.m. Malaysian time . According to these Inmarsat data points , in relation to the Inmarsat satellite , Flight 370 was far south of where it should have been if it had been on its planned route to Beijing . MH370 : New phase to include private contractors , may cost $ 60 million . 'Making progress ' The latest briefing marked a sharp change from previous combative meetings between Chinese family members and Malaysian officials . The `` families ' committee '' that has formed during the agonizing month and a half since the plane 's disappearance has spent weeks demanding details on the aircraft 's last known location . Last week , more than 100 family members marched at midnight to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing and staged a 15-hour sit-in demanding a meeting with a high-level technical delegation . `` They are making progress , '' said Jimmy Wang , a member of the families ' technical committee , after Tuesday morning 's briefing . CNN TV exclusive : Malaysian PM not declaring passengers dead . Why did n't Flight 370 's emergency beacon work ? Lack of signal buoys hope .
The last known words of Flight 370 are played to families of Chinese people in Malaysia . It 's the first time the recording has been played in public by Malaysian officials . They gave a chronology of the plane 's last known words with radar stations , etc . Chinese people have been pushing Malaysian officials to give them more information .