'100% certainty' MH370 crash was murder-suicide, former investigator says

A Canadian aviation expert and former airplane crash investigatorsays he can state with"100 per cent certainty" that Malaysian Airlines Flight370 was intentionally ditched in the ocean by one of the pilots in an act of murder-suicide.

"This is a criminal event. It's not an accident," Larry Vance, a former investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada,told CBC News in a phone interview.

"This was planned and conducted, carried out by one individual who had control of the airplane via his job to have control of the airplane," Vance said.

Either the pilot or co-pilotmade the decision,"forwhateverreason, to take it to a remotepartof the ocean and make it disappearforever."

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Many theories have circulated about the fate of the plane, with some believing it may have been hijacked or shot down, but Vance says his examination of somewreckage that was eventually found shows the plane was deliberately landed in the ocean.

Vance spent 18 months researching and writing his soon-to-be released book MH370 Mystery Solved. Hewas not part of the official investigation conducted by theAustralian Transport Safety Bureau.

He teaches courses in accident investigation and used the crash as course material. From there, he said, he and a few of his colleagues began to look at some of the details of the evidence that wasavailable.

'Murder suicide'

Vance was also part of a group of international aviation experts who recently appeared on60 Minutes Australia to share their conclusions that the crash was an intentional act.

"It would certainlyfit to call it a murder suicide," he said.

This view contradicts a report put out in 2016 by the ATSB,which concluded that the plane ran out of fuel andcrashed into the ocean during a high-speed descent.It was the bureau's beliefthatthe plane had been flying on auto pilot or without pilot input.

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TheBoeing 777 carrying 239 people took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. local time on March 8, 2014, destined for Beijing.

According to the Malaysian government, the final voice transmissionreceivedby controllers at Kuala Lumpur's international airport at 1:19 a.m. local time on March 8 was"Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero."

After 40 minutes of flight time,the planedisappeared from radar, as the plane's transponder stopped transmitting.

Malaysian military radar later identified the plane way off course, in the northern part of the Strait of Malacca.A satellite, however, picked up seven signals, or "pings" over the next hours. This led investigators to conclude the plane flew another six hours, south to the Indian Ocean.

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The plane has never been found, but pieces of wreckage have floated to the shores of eastern Africa.

Vance and his teamexamineddetailedphotographs ofsome of thewreckage andconcluded the plane was deliberately crashed. Their belief wasbased on two pieces of wreckage from the flap system on the right wing of the airplane theflaperon, and the section of flap that's next to it.

By examining themarks on the wreckage, they theorizedthat the flapshad been down when the airplane hit the water. This would mean that the plane had enteredthe water at a relatively low speed.

"We would call that a controlled ditching into the water. And the only way that could happen is if somebody was flying the airplane. In particular, if somebody selected the flaps to be in the extended position."

Book claims plane disappearance was mass murder-suicide

6 years ago

Duration 3:55

A book by retired Canadian investigator Larry Vance claims the pilot of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 deliberately crashed into the Indian Ocean in an apparent pre-planned mass murder-suicide. It contradicts the theory of Australian air safety investigators, who believe the jet crashed into the water after it ran out of fuel, its pilots incapacitated.

And if the flaps were extended, it meant the engines were still running and that the plane had not run out of fuel.

"I believewith100 per centcertaintythat the airplane enteredthewater in a controlledditchingwith the flaps extended," said Vance.

The plane was piloted byCapt.ZaharieAhmad Shah and 1st OfficerFariqAbHamid.

Vance said he can't say for certain if thepilot or co-pilot was the perpetrator, although it's his belief that it's more likelyShahwas responsible because he had ordered two extra hours of fuel.

Turned off transponder

It was Shah, he believes, whoturnedoff thetransponder to make the airplanedisappearfrom radar, andthenturned off the lights in the passenger cabin and depressurized the airplane.

"And that's just one switch, he can flick one switch and the airplane is depressurized."

This would renderthe passengersunconscious and they wouldhave died quicklyfrom lack of oxygen, he said.

During that small window of time, Vance believes, Shah somehow eliminated the co-pilot.Hemay have madeup some reason to get the co-pilot out of the cockpit and then locked the door, leaving him todie from thelackof oxygen in thepassengercabin. Or, Vance said,"He eliminated him in the cockpit."

The pilots have oxygen suppliesthat canlast for hours. But afterhe depressurized the plane,it would have been very easy for the pilot to repressurizethe airplane, Vance said.

Vance believes that after flying another six hours, the pilotmade a controlled ditch to ensure there would not bemassive amounts of wreckage, and instead, the plane would sink to the bottom of the ocean.

"Mycontentionis that he had a destination in mind, he took it to that destination," he said. "He took anairplaneand made it disappear so that nobody could ever find where it went andnobodywould find it ever."

Vance's conclusions challenged

Martin Dolan, former head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau who appeared with Vance on the 60 Minutes episode, challengedVance's certainty on hisconclusions.

"The evidence is not yet sufficient to draw as firm a conclusion as you appear to have done," Dolan said.

Dolan, who led the search for the missing plane, said there are two viable theories that someone was in control of the flight when it crashed, "or they were not."

"There's evidence that supports both of those theories," he said.

It's only speculation that the flaps were down and that the plane did not run out of fuel, he said.

But Vance disagrees andbelievesthe official investigatorswere not experienced enoughto see the evidence on the pieces of wreckage .

"I think they got wedded to a theory."

As for the motive of the perpetrator,Vance said that's not his area of expertise.

"Peoplewho arespecialistsin humanbehaviourand psychology and those sortsof things can answer that."