Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Autopilot Set For Australia?

Investigators searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 believe that the doomed jet was on autopilot during its final hours, according to a new report, yet they have also concluded that someone in the cockpit may have set the plane’s controls to fly toward one of four possible runways in Australia.

According to News.com.au, investigators looking into the disappearance of MH370 believe that someone in the cockpit may have plotted one of at least four potential flight paths, three of which lead to Australia. Investigators feel that Adelaide, Perth, or Port Hedland are destinations that could have been programmed into Flight MH370’s Flight Management System (FMS). The fourth possibility they are considering is that MH370 was set to fly towards Cocos Island, which is situated 2750 km north-west of Perth.

The revelations come as part of a comprehensive, 64-page report on the disappearance of Flight MH370 released earlier this week, Business Standard notes. The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau announced this week that the search for Flight MH370 would shift further south, before releasing the report, which is meant to outline the reasons which led investigators to establish the new search area. The report provides the most thorough outline of Flight MH370’s possible fate after it disappeared nearly four months ago with 239 people aboard.

Investigators caution that while the report makes assumptions about what the pilots may have input into their controls, it does so solely for the purpose of establishing a search area. The report does not make an attempt to place responsibility for Flight MH370’s disappearance.

Earlier this week, Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan revealed at a press conference that investigators now believe that Flight MH370 was operating on autopilot during the final hours of its ill-fated flight. As The Inquisitr reported, Dolan spoke to reporters in Canberra, saying, “We are confident that the aircraft was operating on autopilot until it ran out of fuel.”

Airports at all four locations are capable of safely landing a plane the size of Flight MH370, which was a Boeing 777. The shortest runway is on Cocos Island, but an aviation source confirmed to News.com.au that a Boeing 777 could land there with ease. The report suggests that, after the autopilot was engaged, a “mechanical failure” caused the crew and passengers of MH370 to lose consciousness. The report states that a “hypoxia event” is the most likely scenario:

“Given these observations, the final stages of the unresponsive crew/ hypoxia event type appeared to best fit the available evidence for the final period of MH370’s flight when it was heading in a generally southerly direction.”

After running out of fuel, investigators believe that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 ended in the ocean.

[Images via News.com.au and Wonderful Engineering]