Flight 370’s fate remains a mystery

An official Malaysian investigation into the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared four years ago and has not been found despite extensive searches, was unable to determine what happened to the plane, safety investigators said Monday.

The head of the safety investigation team, Kok Soo Chon, said the available pieces of evidence, including the plane’s deviation from its flight course and the switching off of a transponder, “irresistibly point” to unlawful interference.

But he added that the panel found no indication of who might have interfered or why, and that any criminal inquiry would be the responsibility of law enforcement authorities, not safety investigators.

While Kok did not directly address theories that the disappearance was the result of pilot suicide, he said an investigation into the pilot and first officer “could not detect any abnormality.” Background checks on the passengers by local law enforcement agencies revealed “a clean bill of health for everybody,” he added.

The disappearance of the flight is one of the enduring mysteries of aviation history and has promoted all manner of conspiracy theories.

Kok said there had been no threats or credible claims of responsibility for the plane’s disappearance, which might have been expected as part of a plan to take it down intentionally.

The panel said it would disband after releasing the 495page document but declined to call the report final.