MH370 mystery: Expert pinpoints 'perfect hiding place' where missing Malaysian Airlines flight vanished

Adjunct researcher at the University of Tasmania, Vincent Lyne, believes the plane was deliberately flown into a 20,000ft deep "hole" in the Indian Ocean's Broken Ridge.

Lyne said the Broken Ridge is "a very rugged and dangerous ocean environment with narrow steep sides, surrounded by massive ridges and other deep holes".

Suggesting pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, deliberately crashed the plane, he added: "It is filled with fine sediments—a perfect 'hiding' place".

He wrote on LinkedIn: "This work changes the narrative of MH-370's disappearance from one of no-blame fuel starvation at the seventh arc, high-speed dive, to a mastermind pilot executing an incredible perfect-disappearance in the Southern Indian Ocean.

"In fact, it would have worked were it not for MH370 ploughing its right wing through a wave and the discovery of the regular interrogation satellite communications by Inmarsat—a brilliant discovery also announced in the Journal of Navigation."

He added that he thinks the damage to the plane's wings, flap and flaperon were similar to what US Airways Flight 1549 experienced when Captain Chesley Sullenberger engaged in "controlled ditching" in January 2009.

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Many experts believe that Shah is responsible for the disappearance of the flight amid alleged personal problems.

He had reportedly split from his wife, Fizah Khan, and was also angry about his relative - Anwar Ibrahim - being given a five-year jail sentence for sodomy before he boarded the plane for the flight to Beijing.

His wife has denied the claims and his family said he was a devoted family man and loved his job.

However, Lyne argues that the evidence suggests that the pilot did intentionally crash the plane.

He said the evidence: "Justifies beyond doubt the original claim, based on brilliant, skilled and very careful debris-damage analyses by decorated ex-Chief Canadian Air-crash investigator Larry Vance that MH-370 had fuel and running engines when it underwent a masterful 'controlled ditching,' and not a high-speed fuel-starved crash."

He added: "Encouragingly, we now know very precisely that MH-370 is where the longitude of Penang airport (the runway no less) intersects the Pilot-in-command home simulator track discovered and discarded by the FBI and officials as 'irrelevant'.

"That premeditated iconic location harbors a very deep, 6,000 meter [6561.68 yard] hole at the eastern end of the Broken Ridge within a rugged and dangerous ocean environment renowned for its wild fisheries and new deep-water species.

"With narrow steep sides, surrounded by massive ridges and other deep holes, it is filled with fine sediments - a perfect 'hiding place'."