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'BLOWN OUT THE SKY'
Flight MH370 – Shocking new book reveals doomed Malaysian plane could have been shot down
A SEVEN-year investigation into the mystery of flight MH370 has found the doomed Malaysian plane may have been shot from the sky.
In an exclusive interview to mark her explosive new book, investigative journalist Florence de Changy today reveals her shock findings about the flight on March 8, 2014, that disappeared with 239 people on board.
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Official accounts concluded the Boeing-777 executed a dramatic U-turn less than an hour into its planned flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, before plummeting into the Indian Ocean.
Yet Florence claims it stayed on course for a further 80 MINUTES before plunging into the sea north of Vietnam near China.
She suspects it was shot down — by accident or on purpose — by a “fighter jet, missile or a new laser-guided weapon system being tested in the region at the time”.
And she believes the official version of events is a “diversion operation” and “the biggest cover-up in recent times” to hide that the plane was carrying illicit cargo not checked before being put on board.
In her book The Disappearing Act: The Impossible Case Of MH370, Florence tells how crew made contact with air traffic control in Vietnam to say the plane was landing — then sent a mayday call saying it was disintegrating.
Florence said: “It has been like a jigsaw, putting thousands of little clues together.
‘NOTHING ADDS UP’
“If what I suspect and expose in the book is correct, it would be the biggest cover-up in recent times.”
The award-winning French journalist has covered the Asia-Pacific region for 25 years. She began her investigation a week after MH370 vanished and told us: “When the first anniversary approached I realised nothing adds up in this story.”
Trouble began with MH370 at 1.20am on March 8, 2014, just 38 minutes into its nine-hour plus flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, over the South China Sea.
In the official version of events the plane performed a U-turn and was tracked by radar crossing Malaysia. Satellite analysis was said to have identified a potential crash site in the Indian Ocean.
The search carried out there was the most expensive in aviation history. Disputed pieces of debris were found but the plane was not.
Theories put forward include the pilot crashing on purpose; a drop in air pressure leaving crew unconscious; a lightning strike; and lithium batteries in the cargo hold catching fire.
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Florence revealed: “The plane continued to fly for another 80 minutes, until 2.40am. A new laser weapons system was being tested at the time. The shooting-down could have been a blunder or a last resort to stop the plane’s special cargo falling into the wrong hands.
“Only military or intelligence sources could provide this kind of detail. The strength of my book is in the timing and the cluster of clues that prove a disaster around 2.45am in the north of Vietnam.”
An intelligence source told Florence that between 1.21am and 2.25am MH370 was approached by two US radar planes.
At 1.30am, another aircraft nearby made radio contact with MH370. There was no sign of panic from its crew.
When air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, made contact, the plane’s crew announced it would be landing.
At 2.37am, they told Kuala Lumpur control: “The aircraft is landing at (unintelligible).”
'PEOPLE WANT THE TRUTH'
Two seconds later, Kuala Lumpur replied: “Say again. Say again for Malaysian 370.”
The Kuala Lumpur controller shared the aircraft’s location on the coast of Vietnam, close to Da Nang.
Florence writes in her book: “Unfortunately, the transcript of that conversation stops there.” She told us: “To me, the fact it is still in the official report is a sign some people want the truth to come out.”
By 2.43am, the plane issued a mayday message saying the cabin was disintegrating and they needed to make an emergency landing. That message can still be heard on a Taiwanese website.
And Florence discovered a Vietnam Airlines pilot also said he heard the mayday call, confirming it happened.
Peter Chong, a friend of MH370’s pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 52, further told Florence he was on a Malaysian flight over the Gulf of Thailand a few days after the aircraft was lost when crew on board told him to look at wreckage “to your left”.
‘RHINO HORNS’
Florence writes: “Peter Chong peered out the window and saw a clearly lit area and was able to make out intensive search operations. Chong took this as evidence that Malaysia Airlines believed the plane to have gone down in that area and had informed its crews.”
Florence found MH370 may have been used on a daily basis for trafficking tonnes of illicit goods listed on documents as “fresh mango- steens”, a tropical fruit.
According to the cargo manifest, 4.5 tonnes of the fruit were on board.
She said: “The mangosteens made no sense. It was not the right season, it was a ridiculous amount. Then I found ‘fresh mangosteens’ on every flight of MH370 for the following month.
“The largest hub for illegal trade between Africa and China is Kuala Lumpur airport. So mangosteens could be cover for all sorts of things, including rhino horns or elephant tusks.”
Even stranger was 2.5 tonnes of small electrical items from Motorola on the manifest — lithium-ion batteries, walkie-talkie accessories and chargers.
Florence said: “It was supposed to be small things, not very valuable, not very heavy. The official report said this cargo was not X-rayed.
“This is a very big problem. The head of one of the biggest cargo airlines in the world said never in his life had he accepted cargo on a plane that had not been X-rayed. The reason given was that it was too bulky. How can walkie-talkies and chargers be bulky?
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“On top of all that, in the official report this cargo was escorted from Penang to the airport that night. That is suspicious. It never happens.”
Florence believes this mysterious cargo might have been why the plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
She described “a cargo confiscation operation” with an aim to, “force the plane to make a landing, confiscate whatever that cargo is and let it fly again”.
She added: “If you are surrounded by military planes you are to follow orders. But if it is just an order over the radio, it is legitimate to refuse. No one would notice a slight delay into Beijing. But the captain would have to follow orders to make an unscheduled landing.”
MH370’s pilot was branded troubled, with a chaotic love life. The Malaysian govern- ment suggested a murder-suicide plot.
But Florence said: “I found he was a good, noble, decent guy. A bit of a Casanova, but he was at the top of his game, able to face any situation. If there was an interception or a cargo confiscation and he refused to obey orders, it ended up in a tragic way.”
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Florence is outraged by her findings. She said: “It’s an insult to pretend a Boeing-777 could vanish without trace. It is not credible.
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“The truth needs to come out for the 239 innocent people unfairly taken from their loved ones — and the captain shamelessly and wrongly accused to cover the outrage committed by others.”
- The Disappearing Act: The Impossible Case Of MH370, by Florence de Changy, is published by HarperCollins on February 4, £14.99.
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