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Malaysia Airlines flight 370
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Relatives of the MH370 passengers are still waiting for answers. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Malaysian government said MH370 was ‘murder-suicide by pilot’, former Australian PM Tony Abbott claims

  • The flight disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board, including 153 Chinese passengers, prompting a vast search and rescue operation
  • Former Australian PM Tony Abbott’s remarks are part of a documentary. He also said the Malaysian government never provided alternative explanations
Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott claims he was told “very early on” in the investigation of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that the Malaysian government believed the pilot deliberately crashed the plane as part of a murder-suicide plot, local media reported on Tuesday.

Tony Abbott, who was in office at the time of the plane’s 2014 disappearance, made the comments as part of a documentary to be aired later this week by Sky News.

“My very clear understanding, from the very top levels of the Malaysian government, is that from very, very early on here they thought it was murder-suicide by the pilot,” he said in a preview of the documentary released by Sky News.

The pilot in command was 53-year-old Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah from Penang. He joined Malaysia Airlines as a cadet pilot in 1981.

The Boeing 777 flight, carrying 239 people on board, vanished from radar less than 40 minutes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Of the 227 passengers, 153 were Chinese citizens.

In late 2016, and again in August 2017, wreckage of the plane was found along the coast of Madagascar, an island nation off Africa.

However, an independent international investigation concluded in 2017 it was not possible to conclude why the plane crashed because the flight data recorder boxes were never found.

Abbott refused to clarify exactly what was said to him and by whom, but insisted that “it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder-suicide by the pilot”.

He also said the Malaysian government never provided alternative explanations for why the plane vanished from radar.

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. Photo: Reuters
The disappearance of MH370 has given rise to a range of conspiracy theories. In March 2018, Mahathir Mohamad suggested the flight may have been taken over remotely to foil a hijacking attempt.

“It was reported in 2006 that Boeing was given a licence to operate the takeover of a hijacked plane while it is flying so I wonder whether that’s what happened or not,” said Mahathir, who was not prime minister at the time but has since returned to power.

“It’s very strange that a plane leaves no trace at all. The capacity to do that is there. The technology is there. You know how good people are now with operating planes without pilots. Even fighter planes are to be without pilots. Some technology we can read in the press but many of military significance is not published.”

Mahathir resurrects ‘remote takeover’ theory in MH370 mystery

Some relatives of those on board suspect foul play, even suggesting the plane did not crash at all but was flown somewhere else and the passengers held captive. The jet’s captain also came under scrutiny, although investigations into him have turned up nothing.

In the weeks after the crash, Mike Glynn, a committee member of the Australian and International Pilots Association, said he considered pilot suicide to be the most likely explanation for the disappearance.

“A pilot rather than a hijacker is more likely to be able to switch off the communications equipment,” Glynn said. “The last thing that I, as a pilot, want is suspicion to fall on the crew, but it’s happened twice before.”

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