On March 7, 2014, in the southern Indian Ocean, after flying around Sumatra, flight MH370 likely crossed paths with a very small number of other flights. Analysis of trajectory data retrieved from the FlightAware web pages shows that, in the absence of any reports from other flights, flight MH370 must have turned off its external lights and likely crossed paths with only three or four other flights. These flights did not see it because of the dark, moonless night and because it was likely at a lower flight level. Using the piloted flight path reconstructed by Captain Blelly and J-L. Marchand as a reference trajectory, the shortest estimated crossing distance is only 12 nautical miles for two of these flights. Flight MH370 could not have avoided seeing them. The flight formation of these two aircraft flying between flight levels FL320 and FL380, one directly above the other, suggests that flight MH370 crossed them from below, which corroborates the flight level FL300 calculated in the reference trajectory.
Downloadable documentation:
1- The detailed analysis report
2- The video summary of the detailed analysis
3- The supporting FlightAware data on March 7, 2014 UTC