Ten years after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a new theory emerges. Simon Hardy, a British Boeing 777 pilot, suggests the flight’s pre-departure documents hint at a deliberate act. He believes last-minute changes to the cargo manifest, including additional fuel and oxygen, could indicate Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah planned to crash the plane, the Independent reported.
Mr Hardy, who worked with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau during the search in 2015, told The Sun, “It’s a strange coincidence that the last engineering task that was done before it headed off to oblivion was topping up crew oxygen which is only for the cockpit, not for the cabin crew.”
The aviation expert raised concerns about the “unusual” additions to the flight plan, questioning whether they adhered to proper protocol.
Mr Hardy said that the flaperon found on Reunion Island indicates there was an active pilot until the end of the flight, “If the flaps were down, there is a liquid fuel, then someone is moving a lever and it’s someone who knows what they are doing. It all points to the same scenario.”
Mr Hardy suggests meticulous planning by the pilot. He theorizes the pilot aimed to avoid leaving a fuel slick on the ocean’s surface, making the final resting place difficult to locate.
Similar to other theories, Mr Hardy proposes the pilot deliberately depressurized the cabin to render passengers unconscious before executing a U-turn and crashing the plane. Leveraging “satellite clues,” Hardy believes he has pinpointed the missing aircraft’s location – outside the official search area – within the Geelvinck Fracture Zone, a vast underwater trench in the Southern Indian Ocean.
Following a renewed interest in the MH370 mystery, the Malaysian government announced on March 3rd that they’re considering resuming the search. A Texas-based company, Ocean Infinity, has proposed a “no find, no fee” deal to locate the aircraft that vanished in 2014.