Danica lost her first husband Paul Weeks when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on 8 March 2014. Photo / Supplied
A grieving wife who lost her Kiwi husband in the MH370 crash now believes the incident was murder, not a mechanical failure.
Danica Weeks made the allegation almost eight years after the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 remarkably disappeared.
The plane, carrying 238 passengers including Weeks' then-husband Paul, has never been found after it went missing on March 8, 2014.
The mother of two boys believes a significant step has been made in finding the aircraft.
Weeks told Sky News after years of thinking the plane went down because of mechanical failure she now believes it was murder.
"I was so staunch about saying it wasn't the pilot," she said.
"But now I have to throw all of that out after nearly eight years (since the disappearance) and three years of searching (for the plane, by the authorities).
"I never believed it was the pilot. Unfortunately, Richard Godfrey has said that he believes with this point that the pilot was in control. And look, it makes sense that we've searched for a ghost plane, haven't found it. So maybe we have to step forward and … search on that basis now."
Weeks, who now has a new husband, said the turning point was analysis from British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey published late last year.
He believes he has identified the most likely final resting place of the aircraft and uncovered evidence of a lost 22 minutes when the aircraft flew around in circles.
The breakthrough discovery claim came after an analysis using Weak Signal Propagation Reporter technology – this is effectively an invisible radio wave similar to trip-wires that record anything disturbing or passing through the waves.
However, experts have expressed serious doubts as to whether historical WSPR data can be used to track MH370.
Data from the WSPR was crossed checked with satellite data sets to put the aircraft 1933km due west of Perth in the Southern Indian Ocean in an area with a depth of 4000m.
Godfrey's report claimed the craft should be resting about 4km under the sea in a mountainous region of the southern Indian Ocean that had been missed by previous search attempts.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau described Mr Godfrey as "credible" but has not launched a new investigation.
"The ATSB is aware of the work of Mr Richard Godfrey and acknowledges that he is a credible expert on the subject of MH370, but the ATSB does not have the technical expertise to, and has not been requested to, review his 'MH370 Flight Path' paper and workings.
"As such the ATSB cannot offer an assessment of the validity of Mr Godfrey's work using WSPR data," ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said in a statement.
"The ATSB does acknowledge that Mr Godfrey's work recommends a search zone for MH370, a significant portion of which covers an area searched during the ATSB-led underwater search."
The new claims come after a four-year, AUD$200 million international search effort covering more than 120,000 sqm.
Mitchell added he hoped the mystery would finally be solved.
"We are going over all the old data, looking for anything that might have been missed," he said.
"Because it (the report) puts the aircraft in an area that we have already searched, we are taking a review of the data that we hold there and that's being done with Geoscience Australia."
Godfrey's analysis points to a final resting place southwest of Western Australia, near the imaginary line called the "seventh arc".
His research looked at the plane's apparent course over the Indian Ocean after turning around Indonesia.
The cause of the disappearance of the plane has never been found, however, many believe the pilot was responsible. Godfrey's research seems to add weight to that theory.
"The pilot of MH370 generally avoided official flight routes from 18.00 UTC (2.00am AWST) onwards but used waypoints to navigate on unofficial flight paths in the Malacca Strait, around Sumatra and across the Southern Indian Ocean," Godfrey said.
"The flight path follows the coast of Sumatra and flies close to Banda Aceh Airport.
"The pilot appears to have had knowledge of the operating hours of Sabang and Lhokseumawe radar and that on a weekend night, in times of little international tension the radar systems would not be up and running."
But he said the plane's change in movements and speed appeared to suggest it was trying to avoid leaving clues about where it was heading.
"The pilot also avoided giving a clear idea where he was heading by using a fight path with a number of changes of direction," he said.
Meanwhile, another theory, from aviation journalist Christine Negroni, is that the plane's cabin pressure system rapidly decompressed during the flight.
With Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah in the bathroom, First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid is believed to have taken over while both struggled without oxygen.
The reporter summarised that co-pilot Hamid was left with a major problem being unable to breathe properly and would not have been able to think clearly.
Telegraph: “A bingo card of disappointments.”