KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Investigators released a report on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Monday, saying the Boeing 777’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course but they were not able to determine who was responsible. The 495-page report draws no conclusion about what happened aboard the plane that vanished with 239 people on board en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014, leaving one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries unsolved. “The answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found,” Kok Soo Chon, head of the MH370 safety investigation team, told reporters. On May 29, Malaysia called off a three-month search by U.S. firm Ocean Infinity, which spanned 112,000 sq km (43,243 sq miles) in the southern Indian Ocean and ended with no significant findings. It was the second major search after Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless A$200 million ($147.06 million) search across an area of 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq miles) last year. Malaysian and international investigators have been looking into why the jet veered thousands of miles off course from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean. (Graphic showing the search for MH370: tmsnrt.rs/2K6nMVW) The last communication from the plane was from the Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah who signed off with “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero”, as the plane left the Malaysian airspace and later turned off course. A 440-page final report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) last year showed that Zaharie had flown a route on his home flight simulator six weeks earlier that was “initially similar” to the one actually taken by MH370. The Malaysian police previously concluded there were no unusual activity on the home simulator. Kok said the investigators examined the history of the pilot and the first officer, and they were satisfied with their background and training and mental health. “We are not of the opinion it could have been an event committed by the pilots,” he said, but added they were not ruling out any possibility since the in-air turn back was done manually and the systems in the plane were also manually turned off. “We cannot exclude that there was an unlawful interference by a third party,” Kok said. He added all the passengers of the 15 countries had their backgrounds checked by their respective countries and all came back with a clean bill of health. CONSPIRACY THEORIES The inability to locate MH370’s crash site has fueled conspiracy theories and online debates over the last four years. Theories range from mechanical error or a remote-controlled crash, to more bizarre explanations like alien abduction and a Russian plot. Slideshow ( 14 images ) Kok said they looked into each theory and rumor raised on social media. “We had over 60 allegations...we removed them one-by-one and saw what remained behind,” Kok said. The report said there was no sign the plane was evading radar detection or that it was taken over by remote control. No irregularities were found in the on-board cargo, which included items like lithium batteries and about 2,500 kgs of mangosteen. Slideshow ( 14 images ) MISTAKES MADE In all, 27 pieces of aircraft debris have been collected from various places around the world but only three wing fragments that washed up along the Indian Ocean coast have been confirmed to be from MH370. Malaysia’s newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said Malaysia would consider resuming the search only if new clues come to light. Investigators highlighted some mistakes made by the Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City air traffic control centers and made safety recommendations to ensure such incidents do not occur again. Transport Minister Antony Loke said in a statement that the Malaysia would investigate any misconduct committed based on the findings. The next-of-kin of the passengers were briefed on the final report by investigators earlier on Monday. “We hope that these mistakes will not be repeated and that measures are put in place to prevent them in the future,” said Grace Nathan, a lawyer whose mother, Anne Daisy, was on the plane. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing had paid close attention to the MH370 investigation. “We hope that all sides can continue to remain in close contact and coordination, to properly carry out relevant follow-up work,” he told a daily news briefing, without elaborating. The majority of passengers on board were Chinese.<doc-sep>The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared en route from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur more than four years ago, doesn’t seem any closer to solving today after the Malaysian government released an investigative safety report . The 449-page report concludes that the plane’s sudden turns were not likely the result of a system failure, Bloomberg reports. However, investigators say they are confident the aircraft was deliberately flown off course and into the Indian Ocean. “It is more likely that such maneuvers are due to the systems being manipulated,” wrote the report’s authors. Speaking to reporters today, Kok Soo Chon, chief inspector of the MH370 investigation team, said intervention by a third party couldn’t be ruled out. At the same time, the report says there’s nothing to suggest the aircraft was deliberately evading radar, as suggested by aviation experts who appeared on an Australian news program a few months ago. According to the Straits Times, some families of the 239 people onboard the flight said the investigation offered no new information about the mysterious disappearance, although it did highlight a number of protocol failures on the part of air traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur, who were said to have acted too slowly in initiating emergency procedures.<doc-sep>
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, missing since 2014, was probably deliberately steered off course and flown to the southern Indian Ocean, according to the Malaysian government’s safety report into the disaster. It’s difficult to attribute the aircraft’s changes in course to any specific system failure, according to the report released Monday. “It is more likely that such maneuvers are due to the systems being manipulated,” it said. MH370 vanished on March 8, 2014, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board. Investigators have never been able to explain why the jet abandoned its route shortly into the flight, traversed Malaysia and then cruised south over the Indian Ocean. Experts mapped the Boeing 777’s course only after picking through hourly data hookups with a satellite. Extensive sonar searches of remote waters off Australia’s west coast failed to locate the wreckage. The report offered little to solve modern aviation’s biggest mystery. There’s nothing to suggest the plane was evading radar, or evidence of recent behavioral changes in the crew, it said. Significant parts of the aircraft’s power system were probably still working throughout the flight, according to the report. Without the help of cockpit data recorders, search teams have only guessed what happened in the flight’s final moments. Analysis by the Australian government suggested MH370 ran out of fuel before plummeting--at as much as 25,000 feet a minute--into the water. Other investigators speculated that a person was at the controls to the very end, gliding the plane into the ocean beyond the furthest limit of any search area. A few pieces of wreckage washed up in Africa but no bodies have ever been recovered. A fresh underwater search this year by US exploration company Ocean Infinity ended without success. The jet’s disappearance produced a slew of safety recommendations aimed at preventing a repeat of the tragedy. New aircraft must broadcast their locations every minute when they’re in trouble, but only from January 2021. A gradual tightening of requirements starts in November, when airlines must track planes every 15 minutes under regulations adopted by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization.