MH370's controls 'likely deliberately manipulated': report

Putrajaya, Malaysia

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 US firm Ocean Infinity, which spanned 112,000 sq km 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 (S$201.5 million) search across an area of 120,000 sq km 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.

The last communication from the plane was from Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah who signed off with "Good night, Malaysian three seven zero", as the plane left Malaysian airspace and later turned off course.

A 440-page final report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau last year showed that Cpt Zaharie had flown a route on his home flight simulator six weeks earlier that was "initially similar" to the one actually taken by MH370.

Mr 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," Mr Kok said.

The official report gave no new clues about why the plane vanished and relatives of those on board the aircraft expressed anger and disappointment. Grieving relatives said the technical document appeared to contain little new information beyond a lengthy description of the plane's disappearance and search efforts. REUTERS