The final report into the disappearance of MH370 issued by Malaysia is not final for the relatives, the aviation industry or the conspiracy theorists.
It is just the beginning of a new phase of the search into the most bizarre disappearance of modern history.
The 495-page report is comprehensive but despite the pages of detail the authorities are “unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370.”
It is a great shame that all the Malaysian authorities responsible for the aviation industry in March 2014 were not as thorough when MH370 disappeared.
At the time of the disappearance, the Malaysian oversight of its airline industry was only 30 percent compliant with international standards.
Read: Families disappointed in the MH370 report.
It was as though everyone was asleep at the wheel on that haunting Saturday morning.
Fighters should have been scrambled to follow MH370 as has been done many times around the world – including Australia – when a plane goes “silent.”
The report raises the issue of the captain’s flight simulator but in stark contrast to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau report backs away from any connection to the events of MH370.
The Malaysian report says that the Royal Malaysian Police Forensic Report concluded: “that there were no unusual activities other than game-related flight simulations.”
However, the ATSB said that “six weeks before the accident flight the Pilot in Command had used his simulator to fly a route, initially similar to part of the route flown by MH370 up the Strait of Malacca, with a left-hand turn and track into the southern Indian Ocean.”
The Malaysian report does, however, point the finger at human intervention.
It says that the aircraft was under manual control not autopilot when it made the various turns and that it could not be established whether the aircraft was flown by anyone other than the pilots.
The Malaysians also agree with the ATSB that at the end of the flight the plane was in a dive with no-one on control with the aircraft’s flaps retracted rather than a pilot controlled soft ditching on the ocean as suggested by some.
It also states that some of the debris that was found was almost certainly from the interior of MH370 indicating a violent impact.
It is certain that this report is not the end and hopes are high within the industry that US-based Ocean Infinity will resume that search for MH370 later in the year – possible just outside the areas of greatest interest as identified by the ATSB, CSIRO, UWA and the Independent Group.
