Pilot of MH370 might not have been at the controls when plane plunged into ocean, killing 239 passengers and crew
Investigators raised the possibility that there was no one at the stick when the plane disappeared
THE fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may be a step closer to being uncovered after safety investigators said there may have been no one piloting the plane when it disappeared.
Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 passengers and crew onboard in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.
A report into the missing flight by the Australian safety investigator leading the search raised the possibility that the aircraft descended rapidly after running out of fuel with no pilot to tackle the problem.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report released today said analysis of wing flap debris showed the aircraft was not configured for a landing.
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It also said satellite communications from the aircraft were consistent with it being in a "high and increasing rate of descent" when it vanished, colloquially known as a 'death dive'.
ATSB search director Peter Foley told media on Wednesday that analysis of a wing flap had "enhanced certainty" at what had happened.
"It was probably in a non-extended position which means the aircraft wasn't configured for a landing or a ditching," said Foley, referring to the practice of extending wing flaps to allow an aircraft to travel safely at slower speeds in preparation for a landing.
"You can draw your own conclusions as to whether that means someone was in control or not."
Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 passengers and crew.
The 28-page report contains new end-of-flight and drift simulations that suggests experts believe the current search area is the most likely to contain the crash site. It coincides with the start of a three-day meeting of international experts to develop potential plans to continue the search.
Despite a massive underwater hunt far off Western Australia's coast, no trace of the jet has been found.
Investigators have however confirmed that three pieces of debris recovered along western Indian Ocean shorelines came from MH370.
More than 110,000 square kilometres (42,470 square miles) of a 120,000-square-kilometre search arc have been scoured so far and the operation is due to wrap up in early 2017.
The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China, where most of the passengers were from, this year agreed to pull the plug on the operation once the search area was fully scoured unless "credible new information" emerged.
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