Kuala Lumpur, March 19- In another twist to the mystery of the missing Malaysian Airline Flight MH 370, residents of a remote Maldives island have claimed to have seen a “low-flying jumbo jet” matching descriptions of the missing plane.
This is the latest among scores of theories that try to explain what happened to Flight 370 and the 239 passengers and crew.
According to Maldivian daily Haveeru, several residents of Kuda Huvadhoo in Dhaal Atoll claimed on Tuesday that they had seen a “low-flying jumbo jet” around 6:15am on March 8.
Their description of the plane, white body with red stripes, matched the appearance of the Malaysian aircraft.
Eyewitnesses from the Kuda Huvadhoo said that the plane was travelling North to the Southern tip of the Maldives.
More importantly, they also noted the incredibly loud noise that the flight made when it flew over the island.
“I’ve never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We’ve seen seaplanes, but I’m sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly,” an eyewitness told Haveeru.
“It’s not just me. Several other residents have reported seeing the exact thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too,” he added.
A local aviation expert told Haveeru that it is “likely” for MH370 to have flown over the Maldives. However, the possibility of any aircraft flying over the island at the reported time is extremely low, the expert added.
Meanwhile, Malaysia said on Tuesday it had conferred with the US and Chinese ministers on the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, an unprecedented 26-nation operation that now spans Asia from the Caspian Sea to the southern Indian Ocean.
Investigators are convinced that someone with deep knowledge of the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial navigation diverted the jet, carrying 12 crew and 227 mainly Chinese passengers, perhaps thousands of miles off its scheduled course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
But intensive background checks of everyone aboard have so far failed to find anyone with a known political or criminal motive to crash or hijack the plane.
Satellite data suggests that the last “ping” was received from the flight somewhere close to the Maldives and the US naval base on Diego Garcia.
-Indiatoday
