Oil rig worker Mike McKay believes he saw Malaysia Airlines flight 370, carrying 239 people, ablaze in the sky on March 8, 2014 – but says he’s been forgotten
One man claims he spotted the infamous Boeing 777, carrying 239 people on board, engulfed in flames in the sky.
The more than a decade-long mystery began on 8 March 2014, when Malaysia Airlines flight 370 vanished whilst en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It remains aviation’s greatest enigma and most deadly unsolved case to this day.
In 2014, a New Zealand oil rig worker lost his job after reporting what he believed to be MH370 in flames.
Mike McKay, 57, was taking a cigarette break whilst working on the Songa Mercur oil rig off the coast of Vietnam on that fateful night, according to CNN.
McKay insisted he witnessed an aircraft burning at high altitude, sending an email to his superiors detailing how he “observed the plane burning at high altitude at a compass bearing of 265 to 275 degrees from our surface location.”
The message began: “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.”, reports the Mirror.
It went on: “While I observed (the plane) it appeared to be in one piece. From when I first saw the burning (plane? ) until the flames went out (at high altitude) was 10-15 seconds.
“There was no lateral movement so it was either coming toward our position stationary (falling) or going away from our location. The general position of the observation was perpendicular/south-west of the normal flight path and at a lower altitude than the normal flight paths.”
The email was leaked, including the name of the workplace.
McKay said: “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.
“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?
“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 scrambled aircraft to search for the plane following McKay’s alert, as reported by NZer. A recent search operation by marine robotics company Ocean Infinity was brought to a sudden halt in April, with Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke telling AFP: “Right now, it’s not the season.”
The search re-started at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, Ismail Hammad, Chief Engineer at Egyptair, believes he has solved the mystery that could save everyone “money and time” and ultimately locate the missing aircraft MH370.
Ismail cast doubt on photographs depicting the plane’s wreckage emerging from the ocean, contending “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.”
