AN MH370 writer has come out with a wild new theory about the doomed plane – that its suspect pilot parachuted out so he could start a new life with his mistress.
Author Ean Higgins examines the wild claim in his book The Hunt for MH370, about the Malaysian Airlines flight that disappeared with 239 people on board travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Higgins highlights one particularly sensational theory – that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah planned the mass murder so he could vanish and start a new life with his mistress who was waiting in a boat in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean.
The pair would then start a new life using stolen identities, news.com.au reported.
The theory, he says, was originally propagated by Qantas’s former manager of flight training and veteran airline captain, David Shrubb.
Higgins’ book says captain Shah had numerous mistresses over the years but a woman named Rina was his favourite one.
She’d come into a large inheritance before she met and fell in love with Shah while working at Kuala Lumpur airport, according to the astonishing theory.
Higgins said: “The love tryst couple decided on an elaborate plan to elope and secretly establish a new life in another obscure but pleasant Asian country.”
Using a criminal connection, the theory goes, Shah obtained two stolen passports and on the evening of March 7, 2014, packed his flight kit with extra warm clothes, a bright waterproof torch, whistle and parachute.
That’s my favourite (theory) as well in a sense because it’s the most imaginative. There are lots of others, but you can exclude them basically.
Author Ean Higgins
Then when the flight was on its way he depressurised the plane so everyone on board would become comatose from hypoxia or die.
After doing that he went into the passenger cabin and “systematically but quickly went through the passengers’ and crew members’ wallets and purses and emptied cash into a waterproof container”.
When he knew he was out of radar range about 2.30am, he went back to the cockpit, slowed the plane and took it down to 3000 feet.
Higgins writes: “Seeing the lights of the fishing boat he was expecting, just as planned at the precise agreed coordinates… Zaharie put a deflated life jacket on along with his parachute.
“He returned to the passenger cabin and opened one of the exit doors just behind the wings, after pushing a lifeless flight attendant who had collapsed there out of the way.”
Mr Shah bailed out to the boat, with Rina guided by the torch and whistle.
“Within 15 minutes the love of her life was safely aboard and in her arms, ready to secretly elope overseas and start a new life, the cash from the inheritance secure in the hold.”
Speaking to news.com.au, Higgins said: “That’s my favourite (theory) as well in a sense because it’s the most imaginative.”
“There are lots of others, but you can exclude them basically.
MH370 - WHAT HAPPENED?
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur and was heading to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Passengers included Chinese calligraphers, a couple on their way home to their young sons after a long-delayed honeymoon and a construction worker who hadn’t been home in a year.
But at 12.14am on March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines lost contact with MH370 close to Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca.
Before that, Malaysian authorities believe the last words heard from the plane, from either the pilot or co-pilot, was “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”.
Satellite “pings” from the aircraft suggest it continued flying for around seven hours when the fuel would have run out.
Experts have calculated the most likely crash site around 1,000 miles west of Perth, Australia.
But a huge search of the seabed failed to find any wreckage – and there are a number of alternative theories as to its fate.
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Who was Zaharie Amad Shah?
Shah, born July 31, 1961, was described as a veteran pilot who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.
The 53-year-old had been an airline pilot with Malaysia Airlines for 33 years, and had 18,423 hours of flight time.
He had been a B777 captain for 16 years, and had 8659 hours on that aeroplane type.
Because of his good track record and seniority, he had been designated as a Type Rating Instructor, and Type Rating Examiner, on the B777.
He was recognised as an accomplished and well-respected pilot who had no blemishes on his record.
He was married and had three children.
Zaharie, a passionate cook and keen fisherman, Shah lived with his wife in a luxury gated community where he was said to have built his own flight simulator.
In the wake of the plane’s disappearance, rumours surfaced claiming his wife had moved out of their home.
“We know a fair bit now to exclude things. The ones I have are the ones that are consistent with the known facts.”
The theory explained in Higgins’ book is just one of a number of theories about what happened to the plane.
Some appear to be more plausible than others, ranging from it being taken over by aliens to the US shooting it down because they feared it had been hijacked.
A version of this story originally appeared on news.com.au
