Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has revealed that "highest levels" of the Malaysian government believed from "very early on" that the MH370 tragedy was a murder-suicide plot.
In a documentary entitled "MH370: The Untold Story" which is set to air in Australia tonight, Abbott said it was made "crystal clear" to him within a week that the aircraft was almost certainly deliberately downed by the pilot, according to a report in The Australian.
The plane was piloted by Malaysian Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
"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 a murder-suicide by the pilot," said Abbott who was Australian premier when the plane disappeared on March 8, 2014.
"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.
"A mass murder-suicide by the pilot," said Abbott (below) in a stunning claim.
The disappearance of the Boeing 777 passenger jetliner, which vanished from the radar screen while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, has continued to baffle aviation experts, family members, friends and people from all over the world.
The last search operations to locate the aircraft ended in May 2018 when a United States-based exploration company Ocean Infinity failed to locate the ill-fated aircraft after searching over 112,000 km2 of the ocean floor in more than three months of operation.
In July 2018, the MH370 Safety Investigation Team, in its 449-page report, concluded they were unable to determine the real cause of the disappearance of the ill-fated flight but did not rule out the possibility that "unlawful interference" by a third party had caused the incident.
"Good night. Malaysian three-seven-zero," were the Captain's last words to air traffic control before the plane dropped off the radar at 1:21am.
Satellite data showed the plane then veered off course, making a series of unscheduled turns over the Strait of Malacca and then out towards the Southern Indian Ocean.
To date, only three wing fragments, known as flaperon, have been confirmed to be that from MH370.
