The full report on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was released today (July 30). Malaysia's transport minister Anthony Loke had promised a public release of the report after the Malaysian government has had the chance of reviewing it.

The relatives of those on board MH370 were first to read the full report, which was released to them in a closed-door briefing at the Ministry of Transport.

The 495-page report is accompanied with six appendices, which together are dubbed "the Bible" by the relatives, referencing the length of the documents.

It will take awhile to fully analyze the report but #MH370 next-of-kin says no major surprises. But there are more details here and there such as the extent to which Air Traffic Control “messed up”. pic.twitter.com/bJADCuZcdI

— Sumisha Naidu (@sumishanaidu) July 30, 2018

Earlier media reports named this report as the final one on MH370, but investigator-in-charge Kok Soo Chon said this is only "a report" at the press conference.

Key points of the report

• The goal of the report is not to allocate blame or liability, but to prevent "accidents and incidents".
• Whether aircraft broke up mid-air or during impact with the ocean is unclear.

Plane's divergence from its planned path

• There is insufficient evidence showing why the plane diverted from the planned flight route, but the change in flight path "likely resulted from manual inputs".
• The investigators needed to know the location of the wreckage, and other information like those in the flight data recorder.

Pilots and cabin crew

• The first officer's ability and professionalism were "reported to be good". There were no indications that his behaviour or lifestyle changed recently.
• The flight simulator found in the captain's home was involved in "no unusual activities other than game-related flight simulations". The Malaysia police did not find a similar route flown by MH370 in the simulator.
• But the captain did not read back the assigned frequency in MH370's last transmission against normal radio procedures.
• The investigator-in-charge said in the press conference he has not ruled out the pilot as being responsible for the crash, though it is unlikely to be the case.
• There's no evidence of drug or alcohol abuse by any member of the crew.
• All members of the crew showed no signs of self-neglect, social isolation or change in habits and interests.

Air traffic control could be improved

• Ho Chih Minh air traffic controllers should have contacted Chinese authorities earlier when MH370 did not contact them as planned.
• Kuala Lumpur air traffic controllers "did not comply fully" with air traffic control procedures.
• The command of English could be improved between the control towers in Ho Chih Minh and Kuala Lumpur.

Aircraft largely compliant with regulations

• The plane did not carry any "dangerous goods".
• The plane was maintained "in accordance with existing regulations and approved procedures", except that the battery in the underwater locator beacon had expired.
• There was no record of defect that could have contributed to the missing plane.

Largely due to the lack of evidence available to the investigators, they were "unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370".

Relatives unsatisfied with report

Some relatives left the briefing room in tears, telling reporters that they were unsatisfied with the report.

"Some information about the cabin crew are [sic] wrong," a relative told reporters after the briefing. "How can you guys expect us to believe everything in there?"

To the sister of captain Zaharie Shah, however, the report "rebuts completely" the theory that Shah was suicidal.

"There was nothing negative about his character," she said. "Nothing negative about the nature of his work, his professional record, his family conditions."

To others, the report provided no closure.

Grace Nathan, whose mother was on MH370 and spokeswoman for Voice370 — a group formed by the families of MH370 passengers and crew — wrote on Facebook after the report's release:

Ladies and Gentlemen after 4.5 years of investigation the Conclusion by the Malaysian Annexe 14 MH370 Investigation Team is :

1. We don't know what happened.

2. We don't know why it happened. 

3. We don't know how it happened. 

4. We don't know (if) anything is going to be done about it.

"That's about it," she wrote. "4 Years On we are none the wiser."

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. 227 passengers and 12 crew members were on board the ill-fated flight.

Multiple governments, including those of Australia, China, India and South Korea, had been involved in the search efforts since the flight vanished on the radar. The last effort to search for the wreckage of MH370 ended in May this year.

The investigators will brief families in China on Wednesday (August 1).

Top image by Laurent Errera via Flickr.