GETTY Flight MH370 was deliberately crashed by an unnamed pilot, Australian investigators will conclude

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An Australian team probing the disappearance of the doomed airliner will state that it was intentionally downed by one of the airmen on board if they fail to find evidence of the wreckage within the next few weeks. The bombshell accusation will send shockwaves through the aviation industry, which has been working on the theory that MH370 became a ghost flight, flying on autopilot until its fuel ran out.

Investigators have been meticulously combing a 46,000-square mile area of the Indian ocean off Australia's west coast for more than a year after calculating from satellite imagery where the plane would have ditched in the sea in such a scenario. But, whilst one of the plane's doors washed up on the island of Reunion last year, search teams have found no other trace of the tragic airliner which had 239 passengers and crew on board.

GETTY Investigators have been searching for debris from the plane in the Indian Ocean

GETTY The search area is almost the size of England

The investigators will wind down the hunt in 10 weeks' time and if, as currently stands, no more evidence to explain the disappearance of the flight is found they will return to the theory of a pilot atrocity. Martin Dolan, the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is carrying out the search, said: “We’re not at the point yet, but sooner or later we will be — and we will have to explain to governments what the alternative is. “And the alternative is, frankly, that despite all the evidence as we currently have the possibility that someone was at the controls of that aircraft on the flight and gliding it becomes a more significant possibility, if we eliminate all of the current search area. “In a few months time, if we haven’t found it, then we’ll have to be contemplating that one of the much less likely scenarios ends up being more prominent. Which is that there were control inputs into that aircraft at the end of its flight.”

REUTERS A door from the plane was found on the island of Reunion

GETTY The search for MH370 has been going on for more than a year

The possibility that someone was at the controls of that aircraft on the flight and gliding it becomes a more significant possibility Martin Dolan, the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau

As a result it is likely that an official report that Australia will prepare on the search for MH370 will cite the rogue pilot theory to explain the failure of the search. This is because the potential area of Indian Ocean floor where the remains of the airliner may be lying is vastly greater under a scenario in which a pilot controlled the plane to its end. The rogue pilot theory holds that somebody at MH370’s controls could have glided the aircraft for up to a hundred miles once the fuel ran out, well beyond the boundaries of the search zone, which is already almost the size of England. Is is also believed that the Australian officials are not limiting the potential rogue pilots to the two Malaysia Airlines flight crew flying MH370, leaving open the possibility that a third individual entered the flight deck and took control.

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A switch to the rogue pilot theory would not change the final track of the aircraft south over the Indian Ocean, a route supported by satellite and radar data. However, it does greatly alter the calculations for how far the aircraft may have travelled once its fuel ran out. Under the ghost flight theory, MH370 , after its fuel ran out, would have entered a spiralling high-speed dive into the ocean. But if there had been pilots at the helm they would have been able to maintain control of the plane for some time, meaning the search zone would have to be expanded to an area three times the size of the present area.