Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has claimed that the CIA may be hiding information about the flight MH370, missing for more than two months now.
He says the Malaysian Airlines plane’s disappearance on March 8 was “most likely not an ordinary crash after fuel was exhausted”, according to media reports.
He says on his personal blog the Australian-led search for the plane off Western Australia is “a waste of time and money to look for debris or oil slick or to listen for ‘pings’ from the black box,” Sydney Morning Herald has quoted Mahathir as saying.
“This is most likely not an ordinary crash after fuel was exhausted. The plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS (Malaysia Airlines) markings,” he said.
Dr Mahathir, 88, who was prime minister for 22 years from 1981, wrote on the blog he could not imagine that the “the pilots made a soft landing in rough seas and then quietly went down with the aircraft”.
“Someone is hiding something,” added Mahathir, who is known for his anti-West stand.
“It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame. …They can land safely or they may crash, but airplanes do not just disappear. Certainly not these days with all the powerful communication systems which operate almost indefinitely and possess huge storage capacities.”
Mahathir, who still heavily influences the ruling party, also questioned Boeing about the satellite tracking data on the plane.
“MH370 is a Boeing 777 aircraft. It was built and equipped by Boeing, hence all the communications and GPS equipment must have been installed by Boeing.
“If they failed or have been disabled, Boeing must know how it can be done and surely Boeing would ensure that they cannot be easily disabled as they are vital to the safety and operation of the plane,” he wrote.
“For some reason, the media will not print anything that involves Boeing or the CIA,” he noted, asking, “Can it not be that the pilots of MH370 lost control of their aircraft after someone directly or remotely activated the equipment for seizure of control of the aircraft?”
It is believed that the plane veered far off course while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
Meanwhile, Anglo-American journalist and author Nigel Cawthorne has floated a new theory in his book to explain the mystery.
He says the plane had been hit during a joint Thai-US military exercise.
He bases his theory on what he has claimed to be an eyewitness account. Mike Mckay, an oil worker said he had seen a plane being fired at by the military after it strayed from its route.
At that time defence exercises were on in the South China Sea. Besides the Thai-US joint exercise, China, Japan, Indonesia and a few other countries were engaged in their separate manoeuvres.
Katharn believes the plane that Mackay had seen being shot down was in fact MH370.
He has said firing practice was on in the military exercise that involved ground, sea, and air combatants.
Source: Bd news24
