New report emphasizes Malaysian government's shortcomings in 2014 missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 case

Kuala Lumpur: An independent investigation report released on Monday, more than four years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared , shortcomings in the government response that exacerbated the mystery. [caption id=“attachment_4850221” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image. AP[/caption] 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 on 8 March, 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. 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 US company Ocean Infinity that finished earlier this year also found no sign of the wreckage. Officials said that this report is still not final since the plane has not been found. The Malaysian government has said it is open to resuming searching if credible evidence of the plane’s location emerges.