MH370 was ‘almost certainly’ a murder-suicide plot based on never-released evidence, ex Aussie PM Tony Abbott says
AUSTRALIAN ex-prime minister Tony Abbott has said that the “highest levels” of the Malaysian government believed from “very early on” that the MH370 disaster was a murder-suicide.
He said it was made “crystal clear” to him within a week of the infamous disappearance that the aircraft was almost certainly deliberately downed by the pilot.
Abbott was PM when the plane disappeared over the South China Sea in 2014.
He told Sky: “My understanding – my very clear understanding – from the very top levels of the Malaysian government is that from very, very early on here they thought it was a murder-suicide by the pilot.
“I’m not going to say who said what to whom, but let me reiterate – I want to be absolutely crystal clear – it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder-suicide by the pilot. A mass murder-suicide by the pilot.”
Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was carrying 239 people including six Australians when it disappeared about 40 minutes into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 2014.
The pilot in command was 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who was one of the airline’s most senior captains.
MH370 - WHAT HAPPENED?
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur and was heading to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Passengers included Chinese calligraphers, a couple on their way home to their young sons after a long-delayed honeymoon and a construction worker who hadn’t been home in a year.
But at 12.14am on March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines lost contact with MH370 close to Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca.
Before that, Malaysian authorities believe the last words heard from the plane, from either the pilot or co-pilot, was “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”.
Satellite “pings” from the aircraft suggest it continued flying for around seven hours when the fuel would have run out.
Experts have calculated the most likely crash site around 1,000 miles west of Perth, Australia.
But a huge search of the seabed failed to find any wreckage – and there are a number of alternative theories as to its fate.
There was heavy suspicion from the outset after Mr Shah’s chilling final call to air traffic control was “Good night. Malaysian three-seven-zero.” before dropping off radar at 1:21am.
The Malaysian government’s official report said there was no evidence the “competent” Zaharie had hijacked his own aircraft.
But Mr Abbott said officials suspiciously never mentioned any alternative theories to him.
The news comes as new research has pinpointed where the plane went down to three zones within a 140 mile radius, based on three scenarios, narrowed down from the initial 120,000 area searched in 2014.
Satellite data showed the plane veered wildly off course following the eerie final call, making a series of unscheduled turns over the Strait of Malacca and then out towards the Southern Indian Ocean.
Finding MH370
Two formal investigations led by Australia and Malaysia have so far failed to uncover what happened on the flight.
Official efforts to recover the black box ended in 2018, however, independent researchers have been relentless in their pursuit of the crash site.
A new paper by Dr Victor Iannello, who heads the MH370 Independent Group, has shed new light on the possible crash zones.
In the research, the latest search area was given the “highest priority” (A1) assumes there was no pilot input after fuel ran out, .
The second scenario (A2) assumes there was a glide towards the south after the tanks ran dry over the ocean.
And the lowest priority but largest zone (A3) is where they believe the wreckage could be found if there was a controlled glide into the sea.
