The long-awaited report – which was initially described as the “final report” though investigators then backtracked from that description – left the hopes of the families dashed after it failed to provide any concrete conclusions about the reasons the plane disappeared and any indicator where the wreckage might be.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Kok Soo Chon, investigator in charge of the MH370 safety investigation, did not assign blame for the incident but laid out several protocols that were broken by the air traffic control in Malaysia and Vietnam which ensured that the plane went missing for twenty minutes before anyone was alerted.

Rather than providing answers, the 1,500 page report meticulously disproved many of the theories that have abounded about what happened to MH370.

One of the few concrete conclusions drawn in the report was that the manoeuvre to turn the plane around, taking it off its normal flight path just after 1am, was initiated manually, either by the pilot or a third party, rather than because of autopilot, though it did not speculate reasons.

“The turn back could not be attributed to an anomalous system,” said Kok. “It has been established that the air turn back was done under manual control, not autopilot...we cannot rule out unlawful interference by a third party.”



Kok added that while some evidence that “points irresistibly to unlawful interference, such as the communications ceasing and the manual turn back” he also emphasised that no terrorist group had taken credit.