Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has claimed that the “very top levels” of the Malaysian government thought from the outset that the captain of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — which vanished almost six years ago — downed the plane in a mass murder-suicide.
“My very clear understanding, from the very top levels of the Malaysian government, is that from very, very early on, they thought it was murder-suicide by the pilot,” Abbott said about the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
“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,” he said in a Sky News documentary set to air Wednesday and Thursday.
Abbott was prime minister when the Boeing 777-200ER disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
Working on Malaysia’s behalf, Australia failed to locate the aircraft during the largest search in aviation history before ending it in 2017. A second search, led by the American firm Ocean Infinity, also came up empty.
In response to Abbott’s comments, former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said his country has never ruled out the possibility that the flight could have been taken down by a suicidal pilot.
Najib told the Free Malaysia Today online news portal that Malaysian officials had considered such a scenario during the probe but opted not to publicize their views.
“It would have been deemed unfair and legally irresponsible since the black boxes and cockpit voice recorders had not been found and hence, there was no conclusive proof whether the pilot was solely or jointly responsible,” Najib said.
“Again I must stress that this possible scenario was never ruled out during the search effort and investigations, where no effort was spared,” he added.
Najib acknowledged that there were several reasons for officials to suspect Zaharie’s involvement — including his ownership of a home flight simulator and findings showing that the doomed plane’s transponders had been switched off shortly after it left Malaysian airspace, according to Reuters.
Authorities have said there was nothing suspicious in Zaharie’s background, training or mental health, but did not rule out the possibility that the plane had been deliberately flown off course.
Malaysian police Chief Abdul Hamid Bador, who took part in the probe, on Wednesday said there was no evidence of any involvement by the captain, whose family has long denied he was suicidal.
Former Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in a statement that investigators had “explored every single lead and possibility” but found no conclusive answers.
The Transport Ministry declined to comment Wednesday.
In 2018, a Malaysian-led independent investigation report said the flight’s course was changed manually but did not name a suspect and cited the possibility of “intervention by a third party.”
Abbott said he did not believe conspiracy theories focusing on the Malaysian government, which owns Malaysia Airlines.
“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,” he said.
But he said a new investigation is warranted.
“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,” he said.
With Post wires