AP
A mural depicting the vanished MH370 jet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- Flight MH370 disappeared four years ago with 239 people on board.
- The Malaysian government today issued what is meant to be a definitive report on the disaster - but provided very little in the way of answers.
- It did address one of the pervasive theories about the disappearance: that the plane may have been crashed on purpose by a suicidal pilot.
- Dr Kok Soo Chon, the lead investigator, told the media that psychological evidence on captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah gave no indication he was suicidal.
- More broadly, the report said that investigators have found no evidence that the pilot or crew could be behind the disaster.
A major new report on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has dismissed one of the most pervasive - and horrific - theories for why the plane went missing: that a suicidal pilot may have crashed the jet on purpose.
Investigators funded by the Malaysian government today said that psychological evidence they gathered disputes the popular theory that captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, or a colleague, may have intentionally killed himself and everybody else on board.
The 495-report document said that neither Shah nor his first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, showed psychological signs that suggest that could have deliberately crashed the plane.
AP; iStock; Skye Gould/Business Insider The disappearance is an enduring mystery.
According to both family members and work associates for the crew "there were no behavioral signs of social isolation, change in habits or interest, self-neglect, involvement in drug or alcohol abuse" in any staff on the plane.
The investigation team also compared CCTV footage of the pilot and first officer as they waited in the airport to footage of them waiting for previous flights, to see whether anything seemed different. It did not.
Past voice recordings of both men talking to air traffic control also did not seem significantly different to previous flights, they said.
Dr Kok Soo Chon, the lead investigator, told reporters at a press conference on the report that the men exhibited "no anxiety or stress."
According to a liveblog of proceedings by The Guardian, Kok: "There were two psychiatrists in my team and they were responsible for examining the audio recordings of the pilot and they concluded there was no anxiety and no stress in the recording, it was just normal, and they also recorded the footage from CCTV ... they didn't find any significant behavioral changes."
Kok added that the report was ultimately "not ruling out anything," but found plenty of evidence against the suicide theory.
AP Photo/Joshua Paul A Malaysian child with his face painted at a remembrance event for MH370 victims in March 2016.
In the run-up to this report, the suicide theory remained one of the most pervasive explanations for what could have caused the flight to disappear without a trace on March 8, 2014.
A team of analysts on Australian current affairs programme "60 Minutes" concluded in their investigation that Shah, in a suicidal state, disabled communication before steering the plane into the ocean.
Monday's report is the culmination of a search led by the Malaysian government, which covered 112,000 sq km (43,243 sq miles) in the southern Indian Ocean since January 2018.
The investigation was the second large-scale search for the plane, and followed an earlier, 2.5-year search by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The one new and significant piece of information in the report was that a surprise turn made by MH370 which saw it deviate from its route was made manually.
Samantha Lee/Business Insider
This pushes back against theories that the plane was somehow taken over remotely.
However, investigators still do not have answers to the fundamental questions of how the plane disappeared, where it went, or why.
Kok said: "We cannot determine with any certainty the reason the plane diverted from its planned route. The team is unable to determine the real reason for the disappearance."