MH370 search to be called called off as investigators insist it was an accident and not 'murder-suicide' by pilot

The search for missing flight MH370 will end next week, it was confirmed today.

The flight, carrying 239 people, disappeared as it made its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The Malasyian government had previously promised the families of those onboard that they would continue the search "whatever happens."

Najib Razak, the country's Prime Minister at the time, said: "I promise the families of those lost that we will not give up."

Investigators insist that it was “unlikely” that the pilot was conscious at the time the plane crashed into the ocean and that the crash was therefore an accident.

However these claims go against an investigation by Australian current affairs show 60 Minutes, which concluded that the disappearance of the plane was most likely due to the actions of the pilot who crashed it deliberately.

Martin Dolan who led the official search told 60 Minutes Australia: "This was planned, this was deliberate, and it was done over an extended period of time."

Mr Dolan was part of a panel of experts - assembled by the programme - who agreed that the pilot flew the plane to the most remote area he could in order to enable it to disappear.

The search by Australia, Malaysia and China was called off last January with private firm Ocean Infinity taking over on a “no find, no fee” basis. If they found the plane, they would be given $70 million (£52 million).

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said today that the search would be “extended to May 29.” He then revealed that there would be no further extensions after that.

Mr Loke said that after the search finishes, the Malaysian government will release a full report on the investigation into the plane’s disappearance. However a specific date has not been revealed.

Relatives of those onboard the flight had called on the government to review all matters related to MH370, including “any possible falsification or elimination of records related to MH370 and its maintenance".

Australian investigators said that the plane’s disappearance was an accident.

Peter Foley and Greg Hood from the country’s Australian Transport Safety Bureau told a parliamentary hearing that the plane probably crashed after running out of fuel and it was likely that the plane’s pilot was conscious at the time of the crash.

According to CNN, Mr Foley said that a plane’s flap, discovered in 2015, “eliminated the potential for the actual aircraft to be controlled by an individual and be in a state where it was being control-ditched or likely to be.”

Following the disappearance of the plane, Australia, China and Malaysia searched for the missing aircraft in the Indian Ocean spending A$200 million (£112 million). Ocean Infinity took over the search last year.