Former head of MH370 search says rogue pilot theory could be right after all

(FMT) – The former head of the international search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 said a theory that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately took down the aircraft could be right after all, six years after the plane’s mysterious disappearance during a midnight flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

Martin Dolan, who was the head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau which took part in the multinational hunt for the plane, told a new documentary on the missing flight that he now believed the rogue pilot theory which was once dismissed by authorities worldwide.

“We just now have some additional information which has been brought to bear… means there’s an increasing likelihood that there was someone at the controls at the end of flight,” Dolan was quoted by The Australian as saying in a special documentary titled “MH370: The Untold Story” to be aired on Sky News.

Dolan had rejected the rogue-pilot theory in the past, and expressed confidence that the plane would be found.

The Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people vanished some 40 minutes after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Its disappearance is considered one of aviation’s biggest mysteries, and culminated in the longest and most expensive search mission in history.

There have been no few conspiracy theories on its disappearance, including one that 53-year-old Zaharie had deliberately steered the plane away from its normal route, after his final words “Good night. Malaysian 3-7-0” before the plane dropped off the radar at 1:21am.

The “rogue pilot” theory was also rejected by Zaharie’s friends and fellow pilots.

But in the same programme, former prime minister Tony Abbott has revealed that top Malaysian officials had told him that the pilot could have committed mass murder.

This was confirmed to FMT by Abbott’s then-Malaysian counterpart former prime minister Najib Razak, who said officials had suspected a criminal plot in the disappearance of flight MH370.

Najib said investigators had also focused their probe into Zaharie’s political affiliations.