London - Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was deliberately flown into the ocean, an expert air crash investigator has claimed.
Larry Vance said photos of the plane's flaperon found on a beach 2,500 miles from the search area show "definite evidence" it was extended at the time of the crash, suggesting the pilot brought the plane down.
"Somebody was flying the airplane at the end of its flight," Mr Vance told the 60 Minutes programme on Australian television.
"Somebody was flying the airplane into the water. There is no other alternate theory that you can follow."
Vance said the failure to find floating debris could be explained by a slow, controlled landing in the ocean.
Peter Foley, Australian Transport Safety Bureau's crash investigator, also told 60 Minutes the damage the flaperon sustained provided evidence for the controlled landing theory.
"There is a possibility there was someone in control at the end and we are actively looking for evidence to support that," he said.
Data, recently recovered from the home flight simulator of the plane's captain, showed the device had been used to plot a course over the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed.
The Boeing 777 disappeared with 239 passengers and crew after leaving Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing in March, 2014.
Officials from Malaysia, Australia and China have announced that the underwater search for MH370 will be suspended once the current search area has been completely scoured.
Crews have fewer than 3,900 square miles left to scan of the 46,300-square-mile search area, and should finish their sweep of the region by the end of the year. Almost A$180m (£103m) has been spent on the search so far, making it the most expensive in aviation history.
The Independent