Factual report on MH370 gives convincing details flight ends in Indian Ocean

Principal Specialist at Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology, University Kuala Lumpur Ahmad Maulan Bardai said the collected satellite data had shown detailed path of the flight before it lost contact completely.

"Now we are more convinced that it had ended in the Indian Ocean. Analysis of data from the Inmarsat has shown the flight had changed course after flying passed the tip of Sumatra and heading to the southerly direction.

"And based on that information, it is right that the search and rescue team search in the Indian Ocean," he told Bernama.

The report, released by Malaysian International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370 on Sunday detailed records of preparations for the flight, communications between cockpit and air traffic control, flight path collected from various satellite data, its crew and cargo on that ill-fated flight.

Aircraft information and flight history of MH370 was also recorded in the report.

The Beijing bound flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens with all 239 passengers and crew on board on March 8, 2014.

It had made an air turn back from its intended flight path an hour after it took off from KL International Airport (KLIA) at 12.42am.

Ahmad Maulan said that the fuel capacity of the aircraft on that ill-fated flight had enabled it to travel towards the south.

The report had revealed that MH370 carried 49,100 kilogrammes of fuel that gave an endurance of seven and an half hours. The planned flight duration was five hours and 34 minutes, it said.

"The aircraft can travel 900 kilometers per hour. From the time it made an air turn back, it can still fly for another 5,400 kilometres," Ahmad Maulan said, adding that it could have glided for another hour without fuel before it ended in the Indian Ocean.

On another matter, he said that underwater locator beacon (ULB) battery of the solid state flight data recoder (SSFDR), which was reported expired 14 months before the accident, had no major impact on the recording as SSFDR was operated by aircraft power.

"The only unfortunate thing when the battery expired was that it would not be able to emit beacon when the plane crashed," he said.

However, he noted that the fact how the expired battery was not changed and that it had been overlooked by aircraft safety auditing report was rather questionable.