Missing MH370 anniversary prompts new theories about fate

A Chinese family member of a passenger on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries after they pray at a temple in Kuala Lumpur. Image by (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was “deliberately flown off course”, according to a UK aviation expert.

All the evidence points to a deliberate act and it is also likely that the plane will never be found, said David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flightglobal publication.

He was speaking as the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation prepared to publish a report to mark the first anniversary of the disappearance of the Boeing 777 on March 8 2014.

Mr Learmount said: “We are no nearer discovering exactly what happened to this plane than we were a year ago. But all the evidence – and I mean all – suggests the aircraft went to a spot where its computers would never have taken it.

“It looks as if there was some kind of deliberate act. The plane changed direction dramatically. It did a U-turn and went somewhere that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.”

He went on: “The plane ducked and dived. If the pilots, for some reason, had become incapacitated then the plane would have flown on along its planned route.

“We have got to get used to the fact that we may never find this plane. The Australians have said the search can’t be kept up for ever.”

Mr Learmount referred to the search for the Air France flight 447 which went down in the Atlantic in June 2009. The aircraft was eventually located, and its black box flight recorders recovered, in May 2011.

He added: “The difference between the Air France search and the hunt for MH370 is that in the case of flight 447 people knew where to look. Even then, it took nearly two years to find it.”

(Press Association)