A 'Third Party' Is Suspected To Have Crashed The Plane In Latest MH370 Report

Head of Malaysia's MH370 investigation team, Datuk Kok Soo Chon, said in a press conference on 30 July, that the aircraft had "turned back" under "manual control", but investigators were unable to determine why.

The Boeing 777 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board when it suddenly disappeared on 8 March 2014. A majority of the passengers were from China, along with 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians and several others from other countries, including France and the United States.

Investigators were unable to figure out why the aircraft was switched from autopilot mode to manual and redirected. However, according to satellite data collected, they believe that the plane flew for six hours towards the Indian Ocean before plummeting into the sea.

The reports also revealed that someone in the cockpit contacted the Malaysian air traffic control just before 1.20am, saying "All right, goodnight," but had not checked-in with controllers in Ho Chi Minh City when the plane flew into Vietnam's airspace, according to New York Post.

On top of it all, no emergency calls were made as all of the aircraft's radar systems and plane's communications were offline. 

The report stated that Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic controllers should have raised red flags hours before that, while the radio controller in Kuala Lumpur should have also monitored the plane's movements.

The 449-page report states that, "maintenance history and events prior to the last flight do not show any issues that could have contributed and resulted in the deviation and subsequent changes in the flight path."

Without the ability to examine the aircraft's wreckage or recorded flight data information, the team is unable to confirm if there were any possible system failures that forced the plane diversion.

According to Australia news.com, Kok said investigators "couldn't find any flaws with the aircraft".

"There was no record of any malfunction or defect of the aircraft. None that could have contributed to the disappearance," he said.

"We have examined the pilot, the flight officer. We are quite satisfied with their background, with their training, with their mental health, mental state. We are not of the opinion that it could have been an event committed by the pilot," Kok told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, according to Australia's The Age newspaper.

He added that they were not ruling out any possibility.

It was previously reported by The Sunday Times in 2014 that the pilot Captain Zaharie Shah was a prime suspect for the missing flight.

All of the other passengers were clear of any suspicious motives, however, it was said that the pilot's "home flight simulator was programmed with a flight path into the depths of the Southern Ocean before landing the plane on an island with a small runway."

Allegations were also made back then claiming that the pilot was suicidal but, investigators denied this theory, reported The Washington Post.

A large search was covered across 120 square kilometers of Indian Ocean, as 25 pieces of plane debris were discovered washed up on islands off the east coast of Africa. No bodies have been found so far.

Families of the passengers on board the flight have had little closure since MH370 went missing and can only hope that the government will continue the search.

In an updated report by New Straits Times, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that the search will continue if there are any new clues.