There is a theory Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had a political motive. Photo / Supplied
There is a theory Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had a political motive. Photo / Supplied
The pilot of doomed jet MH370 that mysteriously vanished over the Indian Ocean may have taken the whole aircraft hostage, a British engineer has claimed.
In 2014, the missing Malaysian Airlines plane vanished with 239 on board to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
For years experts have attempted to uncover what happened and where the wreckage might be found.
Now, an aviation expert has said new tracking technology holds the key to solving one of the greatest aviation mysteries in history.
Richard Godfrey, an engineer believes he has pinpointed the Boeing 777's exact resting place – on the seabed some 1,900km west of Perth, Australia.
The plane should have been heading in the opposite direction, north, towards Beijing. So, if it did crash in the Indian Ocean, how did it head so far off course?
Godfrey, who lives in Germany, believes the pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had a political motive, he told The Times.
There is a theory Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had a political motive. Photo / Supplied
He also claimed some information is still being covered up by the Malaysian government some seven years on.
The key clue appears to be the 22-minute holding pattern which MH370 inexplicably entered off the coast of Sumatra.
"My current view is that the captain hijacked and diverted his own plane."
He explained that Zaharie was a supporter of the Malaysia opposition and was actually an acquaintance of its leader, Anwar Ibrahim.
A day before the plane took off Ibrahim was sentenced to five years in prison on sodomy charges.
Route map of MH370.
Some claim the charges were false and politically motivated.
Godfrey suggests it may have been enough to trigger the pilot into some sort of hostage situation.
However, he admits he has "no evidence" of this, saying his beliefs are "speculation" but stresses he makes a compelling case.
Godfrey's theory is that the 22 minutes where the plane started mysteriously circling may have been an attempt by pilot Zaharie to negotiate Ibrahim's release.
"Maybe somehow that negotiation went wrong and he ends up flying to the remotest part of the southern Indian Ocean," he said.
Richard Godfrey has been investigating the missing plane. Photo / Sunrise.
The theories are fuelled by Malaysian military as they refuse to release military radar data.
"To me, it is clear there is still certain information being withheld, principally by the Malaysian government."
Zaharie is known to have pre-planned his strange route on a flight simulator found at his home – fuelling the theory the vanishing was premeditated.
The world might never know what drove Zaharie to fly the plane off route, but Godfrey believes his work may lead to finding the wreckage of MH370.
Godfrey has used radio signals acting like "trip-wires" to help him locate the jet which he says lies 3900m below the surface of the ocean.
He believes it is at the base of what is known as the Broken Ridge – an underwater plateau with a volcano and ravines in the southeastern Indian Ocean.
He said the tracking system called Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) is like having a "bunch of trip-wires that work in every direction over the horizon to the other side of the globe."
Godfrey combined the new technology with satellite communications system data from the plane.
He said: "Together the two systems can be used to detect, identify and localise MH370 during its flight path into the Southern Indian Ocean."
The Brit says he is "very confident" he has found the missing plane which he claims crashed at 8.19am.
"We have quite a lot of data from the satellite, we have oceanography, drift analysis, we have the performance data from Boeing, and now this new technology," he added.
"All four align with one particular point in the Indian Ocean."
