A new analysis suggests nobody was at the controls when a doomed Malaysia Airlines flight ran out of fuel and crashed in the Indian Ocean in March 2014, the UK's Independent newspaper reports.
The new information on Flight MH370 was contained in a report on the Boeing 777 – which disappeared with 239 passengers and crew after leaving Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing – released Wednesday by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
According to the Independent, the report supports investigators' long-held theory that pilots weren't at the controls of the plane in its final moments.
The report also says the plane’s flaps weren't extended when it crashed, ruling out a controlled descent.
That conclusion was based on analysis of debris from the plane’s right wing that showed damage sustained was "consistent with the flaps in the retracted position," the Independent reported.
Data from the final communications with the aircraft also was "consistent with the aircraft being in a high and increasing rate of descent at that time," the reports maintains – meaning the jet would've dove at a high speed into the Indian Ocean after it disappeared from radar, according to the Independent.
The newspaper notes the report is at odds with a controlled descent scenario, in which it is argued someone was still piloting the plane when it crashed. But if that was the case, the pilot could have guided the jet much further than the estimated crash zone, the Independent reported.
Just 20 pieces of debris have been found since its crash.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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