Just as a technical point, the transponder would be set to MAS370. The ACARS would be set to MH370. It's a minor point but significant in the separation of ai

Just as a technical point, the transponder would be set to MAS370. The ACARS would be set to MH370. It's a minor point but significant in the separation of air traffic control ( transponder ) and airline operations ( ACARS ). You can think of the flight number MH370 as the interface contract ( 'We will fly you from KL to Beijing' ) and MAS370 as the reification of that. In fact, there could be several physical flights underlying the logical flight number.