One individual reported witnessing the well-known Boeing 777, carrying 239 individuals, being engulfed in flames.
The enigma that began a decade ago on March 8, 2014, when Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared during its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, remains the most significant unsolved case in aviation history and the deadliest incident to date. In 2014, a worker from a New Zealand oil rig was dismissed from his job after reporting a sighting of what he believed was MH370 on fire. Mike McKay, while taking a break at the Songa Mercur oil rig off the coast of Vietnam, claimed to have seen a plane ablaze at a high altitude, as reported by CNN.
McKay, aged 57, mentioned in an email to his employers that he witnessed the burning plane at a compass bearing between 265 to 275 degrees from their location. The email started with: “Gentlemen. I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines flight come down. The timing is right. I tried to contact Malaysian and Vietnamese officials several days ago. But I do not know if the message has been received.”
The leaked email included details of the workplace. McKay expressed, “Of course, I ended up looking like a fool. But what happened to me is of no consequence considering those who lost family on the flight. I sent an observation in a confidential email hoping it would help find the loved ones of the families.”
He further stated, “This was leaked to the media. I saw something but the distances from the last known position make my observation being the plane unlikely under the generally accepted route the plane took after contact was lost. I have many questions. How did the flight return across the Malay Peninsula and fly over the F16 base at Butterworth and the Penang Airport basically unnoticed?”
He continued, “This moved the search away from the South China Sea. Why did it take six days for the primary radar data to be released? What were the two sonar locators investigated in the Indian Ocean? Where is the metal stress reports of the part found on Reunion Is? This would tell how the plane broke up. The pilot would have tried to circle until daylight away from the flight paths of other planes. The [seventh] arc on which the plane was lost (if the data is to be believed) could put the break-up back in the South China Sea or immediately south of Sumatra. Not off the west coast of Oz (Australia).”
Vietnamese authorities deployed aircraft to search for the plane following McKay’s report, as per NZer. Recent search efforts by marine robotics company Ocean Infinity were halted abruptly in April, with Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, citing seasonal reasons for the pause. The search is yet to resume, with Loke stating, “They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year.”
On the other hand, Ismail Hammad, Chief Engineer at Egyptair, believes he has a solution to save time and money and finally locate the missing plane MH380. Ismail questioned the images of the plane wreckage found in the ocean, stating that “the condition of the plane’s paint is not consistent with what would happen if it had been lying in salt water for as long as it had.”