An expert on aircraft accidents said the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board, was deliberately crashed into the Indian Ocean, Australian media reported Monday.

“Somebody was flying the airplane at the end of its flight … Somebody was flying the airplane into the water,” Larry Vance, who investigated the Swissair crash of 1998, told the 60 Minutes program on Australia’s Channel 9.

The expert said the flaperon found on Reunion Island last year and handed over to France for analysis is the strongest evidence supporting the theory that the Boeing 777 plane was “planning” on flying into the ocean.

This hypothesis locates the place of impact somewhere far south of the 120,000 square kilometer area off the Australian coast that has been searched.

Although France has not yet revealed its findings, Vance believes that part of the plane’s wing was deployed for landing and then dragged by the force of water.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau(ATSB) Search Operation Director Peter Foley has not ruled out the possibility of someone controlling the plane until the very end.

He also admitted that the ATSB has seen some of the French analyses, which suggest that the flaperon was deployed, further supporting the theory that the disappearance was premeditated.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing following which someone switched off the communication systems and turned the plane around, causing it to crash into the ocean once its fuel was exhausted.

So far five pieces of plane debris have been recovered from Reunion Island, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa and the French island of Rodrigues, which authorities have confirmed as parts of the missing Boeing 777. EFE

Sydney, Australia, Aug 1 (EFE)