New Report Highlights Government's Shortcomings In MH370 Mystery

The report reiterated Malaysia's assertion that the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications.

Outlook Web Bureau

Updated on: 30 July 2018 1:54 pm

An independent investigation report released on Monday more than four years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared highlighted shortcomings in the government response that exacerbated the mystery.

The report reiterated Malaysia's assertion that the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications. It said the cause of the disappearance still cannot be determined and the "possibility of intervention by a third party cannot be excluded."

The plane carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished March 8, 2014, and is presumed to have crashed in the far southern Indian Ocean.

Family members of those onboard the plane said they were frustrated as there were many gaps in the investigations and questions left unanswered.

"It is so disappointing," said Intan Maizura Othman, whose husband was a flight steward on MH370, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished in March 2014.

"I am frustrated. There is nothing new in the report. "Those who gave the briefing from the ministry of transport were not able to give answers as they were not (the ones) who wrote the report." She said that the meeting between relatives and officials descended into a "shouting match" as family members' frustration boiled over.

"Many asked questions," said G Subramaniam, who lost a son on the flight, but added that "unsatisfactory responses left many angry".

Scattered pieces of debris that washed ashore on African beaches and Indian Ocean islands indicated a distant remote stretch of the ocean where the plane likely crashed. But a government search by Australia, Malaysia and China failed to pinpoint a location. And a second, private search by U.S. Company Ocean Infinity that finished earlier this year also found no sign of the wreckage.

Officials said on Monday's report that it is still not the final report since the plane hasn't been found. Malaysia's government has also said that it is open to resuming searching if credible evidence of the plane's location emerges.

Agencies