15 Jun 2014

NZers claim to solve MH370 mystery

10:13 am on 15 June 2014

Two New Zealanders are to release a book in which they claim to know what happened to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

The book, entitled Good Night Malaysian 370: the truth behind the loss of Flight 370, will be published at the end of July.

It is written by journalist Geoff Taylor and pilot and former chief executive of Kiwi International airlines and Norfolk Air, Ewan Wilson.

Mr Wilson, who has done studies of the human factors in air accidents, said the book presents an evidence-based approach to the mystery surrounding the plane's disappearance.

He said they did not interview the Malaysian Air Aviation Authority, which is investigating the plane's disappearance, but did talk to other pilots and family members of the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Mr Wilson said while a hijacking that went terribly wrong can't be ruled out, they believe it's unlikely.

He said the other possibility the book presents is that Captain Shah, who was at the controls, did something intentionally to take the plane off course. He said the motives behind the Captain's actions are outlined in the book.

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Photo: AFP

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March this year as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Using satellite data, officials have concluded that the airliner, which had 239 people on board, ended its journey in the Indian Ocean, north-west of the Australian city of Perth.

But no trace of the Boeing 777 has been found, nor any reason for its disappearance.

The search of the southern Indian Ocean was narrowed in May after a series of acoustic pings, thought to be from the plane's black box recorders, were heard near where analysis of satellite data put its last location, some 1600 km off the northwest coast of Australia.

At the end of May, Australian officials said wreckage from the aircraft was not on the seabed in the area they had identified.

However the head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Martin Dolan, said he was still "confident" that the final resting place of the aircraft was the Indian Ocean.