Reports suggested that the pilot plotted a course to the southern Indian Ocean and that the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane was deliberate or a planned murder/suicide.

“This type of scenario was not new and had been reported in the media previously,” JACC said in its operational report.

“The simulator information shows only the possibility of planning. It does not reveal what happened on the night of the aircraft’s disappearance, nor where the aircraft is located.

MAS flight MH370 with 239 people aboard disappeared during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

JACC said the best available evidence of the aircraft’s location was based on what was known from the last satellite communications with the aircraft.

“The last satellite communication with the aircraft showed it was most likely in a high rate of descent in the area of what is known as the 7th arc.

This is indeed the consensus of the Search Strategy Working Group,” it said.

It was reported that Malaysia, China and Australia would suspend, but not terminate the search for the missing Boeing 777, or parts of it, upon completion of the priority 120,000 square kilometre search area.

To date, more than 110,000 sq km had been searched.