A leading air crash expert, Larry Vance, said on Monday in Canberra that he believed the theory that the missing Malaysia Airlines fight MH370 was brought down by a rogue pilot or hijacker.
Vance said that the flight was likely to have been controlled as it hit the water.
He said that there was no other way to explain why the plane’s flaperon, found off the coast of Madagascar, was extended.
He added that the only way to extend the flaperon, (something which happens when a plane is attempting a landing) was for the pilot to engage a switch.
He said that such action was unlikely to have occurred during sudden disaster.
“You cannot get the flaperon to extend any other way than if somebody extended it.
“Somebody would have to select it in the cockpit,’’ he said.
According to Vance, from photos released of the flaperon, there is evidence to show the aeroplane hit the water at a controlled speed, adding that it indicated human engineered event.
He said, “there is no other alternate theory that you can follow of all the potential that might have happened. There’s no other theory that fits.
“The force of the water is really the only thing that could make that jagged edge that we see on the flaperon.
“It wasn’t broken off; if it was broken off, it would be a clean break.’’
Meanwhile, Peter Foley, crash investigator with Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said there was a possibility that someone was in control of the plane as it went down.
“There is a possibility there was someone in control at the end and we’re actively looking for evidence to support that.’’
He said that if the plane was brought down by a “rogue” pilot, the wreckage could be outside the parameters of the Australian-led 120,000 square km search zone.
Foley said that the search for the Boeing 777 is scheduled to end in coming weeks, adding that less than 10,000 square km was yet to be searched.
MH370 was a scheduled passenger flight bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 passengers and crew on board.
