MALAYSIA Airlines flight MH370’s disappearance on March 8, 2014, remains a mystery despite extensive investigations and due to the lack of success in finding the passenger jet, said the official report released today.

“In conclusion, the team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370,” said the MH370 Safety Investigation Report.

It said the probe, without being able to examine the aircraft wreckage and recorded flight data information, “was unable to identify any plausible aircraft or systems failure mode” that would lead to a systems deactivation, diversion from the filed flight plan route, and subsequent flight path taken by the aircraft.

“However, the same lack of evidence precluded the investigation from definitely eliminating that possibility.

“The possibility of intervention by a third party cannot be excluded, either.”

The investigations also found that the plane’s cargo, which included a consignment of mangosteens and lithium ion batteries, did not cause a short-circuit or fire that could have led to the aircraft’s disappearance.

The flight via a Boeing 777 with the tail number 9M-MRO was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Kok Soo Chon, the lead investigator in the safety investigation team, read out the report at a media briefing in Putrajaya.

The former Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia chief said the report is not the final on the missing plane, as had been reported by the press, adding that some measure of closure is needed in the probe.

He reiterated that today’s report is not on the search for MH370, but rather, safety aspects and flight protocols.

“This is an Annex 13 report (under the International Civil Aviation Organisation), which deals only with safety. Nothing to do with the search, which is under another team.” 

Kok said investigations into the flight crew, pilot and first officer did not reveal anything unusual.

He said the pilot was very experienced, “flawless” in his competency, medically fit and displayed no signs of being stressed.

However, he said, the turn-back over the South China Sea was “definitely” done manually, although there is insufficient evidence to establish whether the aircraft was being flown by anyone other than the pilot.

While not excluding the possibility of an unlawful party intervening at the controls, he said there was no record of a rapid change in altitude or speed, which might indicate a struggle in the cockpit.

He said the aircraft itself had been well maintained, with no record of any malfunction or defect.

Therefore, the turn-back cannot be attributed to an error in the plane’s systems, said Kok.

Asked about theories that the pilot had deliberately diverted from the flight path and crashed the plane, he said the safety investigation team has discounted the possibility.

He said the safety probe is separate from judicial investigations, and the latter looked into such theories.

He also dismissed the possibility of an unlawful interference, as no party has come forward to claim responsibility for MH370’s disappearance. – July 30, 2018.