Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told Sky News in a new interview that top Malaysian government officials believed early on into the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that a ‘murder-suicide’ by the pilot was to blame. MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 227 passengers and 12 crew members onboard but the cause of its disappearance remains unsolved.
All of those on board the Boeing 777-200 are presumed dead after extensive searches failed to locate the jet. The aircraft disappeared from air traffic control screens around 38 minutes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing Capital airport as it flew over the South China Sea.
The plane continued to be tracked by military radar for the next hour but eventually left radar range. Investigators searched over 120,000 square kilometres of ocean in an attempt to locate the aircraft before suspending the operation in 2017.
A second attempt to locate the plane was launched in January 2018 but was wound up just six months later without success.
“My understanding, 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,” ex-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has now told Sky News in a new interview.
Several theories over the loss of MH370 have been investigated since its disappearance including possible crew incapacitation, possibly from a decompression event, as well as a sudden loss of power, a cargo-hold fire and even a possible terrorist attack.
Investigators have also looked into the possibility that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately downed the jet, following allegations about deleted data from his home aircraft simulator.
According to Abbott, Mayalasian officials were investigating this line of enquiry within a week of the plane’s disappearance.
“I’m not going to say who said what to whom but let me reiterate, I want to be absolutely crystal clear, it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder-suicide by the pilot… mass murder-suicide by the pilot,” Abbott said.
But when asked if he thought there had been a cover-up, Abbott continued:
“Look, that’s not my assumption at all… and I’ve read all these stories that the Malaysians allegedly didn’t want the murder-suicide theory pursued because they were embarrassed about one of their pilots doing this – I have no reason to accept that.”
And asked if a new search should be launched, Abbott said:
“If it is a fact that the furthest reaches weren’t explored because of assumptions about a pilot who was no longer at the controls, I would say let’s ditch that assumption, let’s assume that it was murder-suicide by the pilot and if there is any part of that ocean that could have been reached on that basis that has not yet been explored, let’s get out and explore it.”
A final report into the tragedy in 2018 left many relatives and friends of those lost angry after it failed to reach any firm conclusions. The former head of Malaysia’s civil aviation regulator criticised Abbott’s new comments, saying speculation would hurt the next of kin.
