MH370 pilot key suspect, says Abbott

Top levels of the Malaysian government believed from early on that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was ‘‘murder-suicide by pilot’’, former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott says.

The disappearance of the Boeing 777 in March 2014 is one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 12 crew and 227 passengers on board, including New Zealander Paul Weeks.

Evidence, based on independent analysis of satellite, radar and aircraft performance data, indicates that the aircraft crashed into the sea in the southern Indian Ocean, west of Perth.

‘‘My very clear understanding, from the very top levels of the Malaysian government, is that from very, very early on here they thought it was murdersuicide by pilot,’’ Abbott told Sky News Australia.

Abbott, who was prime minister at the time the plane went missing, said it was not his assumption that there had been a cover-up.

"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.’’

Abbott spoke to Sky News for a two-part documentary screening in Australia yesterday and today.

In a report published in mid2018, Malaysian air safety authorities cleared the pilot and first officer, and said the plane itself was in good condition. That left the possibility of intervention by ‘‘a third party’’.

Neither captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah nor first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid had shown recent changes in behaviour or personal problems, the report found.

But several turns that took the plane off its path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing were likely made manually, not by the autopilot.