August 04, 2016•Update: August 08, 2016
By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia has dismissed a recent report by an Australian television channel that claimed that evidence had shown that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was deliberately crashed into the Indian Ocean by pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
An air-crash investigator has claimed a section of wing recovered a year ago was extended upon landing -- a procedure that "can only be activated by a person" -- while data recovered from the home flight simulator owned by Shah is reported to show it had been used to plot a course over the southern Indian Ocean.
On Thursday, Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters that there is still no evidence to substantiate the claims by the 60 Minutes news programme
"In light of recent news reports which suggested a controlled ditch theory on the crash of MH370, there has been no evidence to prove the pilot had intentionally brought down the plane into the southern Indian Ocean," he said in administrative capital Putrajaya.
Liow added that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which led the team of experts in locating the search area which covered 120,000 square kilometres (46332 square miles), had reported that it was an "uncontrolled ditch".
"So this will negate the controlled ditch theory," said the minister.
With regard to date recovered from Shah's home simulator, Liow rubbished it as "one of thousands of courses found on the pilot's simulator".
"The plot to the southern Indian Ocean is one of the points on the simulator but that doesn't prove that Captain Zaharie had piloted MH370 down in the area," he said.
"There is no evidence to prove this."
Liow also highlighted that the simulator was used by Shah to test flights to many destinations via a "trial and error" process, although the minister admitted that one of the last trial routes in the simulator indeed ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
The minister also advised the public not to speculate as allegations as such could hamper the ongoing investigation.
On July 29, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Commissioner Greg Hood had reiterated that the view from satellite data from the Boeing 777 jet suggested it was plunging at almost 400 kilometres per hour just before it crashed into the sea with 239 passengers and crew on board.
This meant no one was in control of the jet, he added.
Flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur enroute to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
The jetliner has yet to be found despite massive search operations in the southern Indian Ocean where the aircraft was believed to have ended its flight after diverting from its original route.
The search and rescue mission -- which began immediately after -- involved some 160 assets as well as experts from 25 countries.
To-date, six pieces of aircraft debris believed to be from MH370 have been found.
After 10 months of intensive undersea search for the vanished flight, on Jan. 29 2015 Malaysia declared that MH370 was lost in an accident, killing all passengers.
On July 29 last year, a piece of aircraft debris was found washed ashore on the French island, east of Madagascar. The debris -- believed to be from a Boeing 777 -- was sent to Toulouse, France, for analysis the following day.
Days after, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the flaperon was from MH370, and that the flight indeed ended in the Indian Ocean.
