MH370 Safety Investigation Report inconclusive (Updated)

PUTRAJAYA: Investigators looking into missing flight MH370 have not ruled out "third party interference" that led to the plane's disappearance.
"We do not know exactly what happened to MH370, there was a turn back and it was done manually and, there could have been third party interference," said Datuk Kok Soo Chon, head of the MH370 safety investigation team, told reporters after the MH370 Safety Investigation Report was released today.
"Nothing is conclusive because all our checks on the pilots revealed that they had no mental health, depression or money problems," he added.
He said the team could not reach a conclusive decision nor call this the final report because there is no proper wreckage or victims found.
He pointed out that debris recovered some were as far north as the eastern coast of Tanzania and far south as the eastern coast of South Africa.
He said the 1,500 page report produced by the team has the support of seven other countries involved in the investigation, United Kingdom, Australia, France, China, United States, Singapore and Indonesia.
He added that if anyone disagreed with the report they had the right to add a minority report, which none did.
Kok said there is significant lack of evidence available to the team to determine with any certainty the reasons the aircraft diverted from its filed flight plan.
He said the failure of Air Traffic Control to inform their Vietnam counterparts on the early handover of MH370 could have been a contributory factor,
He said the flight was supposed to be handed over to Vietnam at 1.22am but the Malaysian side did it at 1.19am.
"They failed to inform the Vietnam side nor did the pilot attempt to contact Vietnam about the early handover.
"This was further compounded by the fact that at 1.22am Vietnam air traffic controllers did not contact MH370.
"Even with a grace period of five minutes they should have got in touch with the plane at 1.27am but failed to do so. They only informed the Malaysian side at 1.39am, nearly 17 minutes had passed and no one knew where the plane was," said Kok.
He said the Boeing 777 could have "flown anywhere" in this period.
MH370 with 239 people on board went missing on March 8, 2014.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke in a statement said the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned.
"We remain ever hopeful that we will be able to find the answers we seek when the credible evidence becomes available," he said.
Meanwhile, Grace Nathan, who spoke on behalf of the Next Of Kin (NoK) said the report only highlighted the failure to follow the set protocols and guidelines when a plane goes missing.
"I hope measures would be put in place to avoid such errors from happening again,"she said.
Grace said the safety investigation team refused to answer questions on the future of the search and limited themselves to the report they had produced.
She said the NoK hoped that the new government will come up with a definite answer on whether the search for MH370 will continue.